GIFT   OF 
Robert  Warren  Jones 


o 


,    0 

vf. 


HENRY   WADSWORTH 
LONGFELLOW. 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIETHDAY. 


PROCEEDINGS 


OP   THE 


jHaine 

FEBRUAKY  27,  1882. 


PORTLAND: 
HOYT,  FOGG  AND  DONHAM, 

193  MIDDLE  STREET. 


Copyright,  1882, 
Br  MAINE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

All  rights  reserved. 


Gin 


RIVERSIDE,  CAMBRIDGE  : 

ELECTRO-TYPED    AND    PRINTED     BY 
H.  0.  IIOUGHTON  AND  COMPANY 


b 


1807  —  1882. 


HENRY  WADSWORTH    LONGFELLOW. 
VMAINE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 


M769928 


Often  I  think  of  the  beautiful  town 

That  is  seated  by  the  sea; 
Often  in  thought  go  up  and  down 
The  pleasant  streets  of  that  dear  old  town, 

And  my  youth  comes  back  to  me. 

My  Lost  Youth. 

But  the  poet's  memory  here 

Of  the  landscape  makes  a  part. 

Oliver  Basselin. 


PREFACE. 


THE  poems,  papers,  and  letters  included  in  this 
volume  were  published  in  the  "  Portland  Daily 
Advertiser/'  on  the  day  following  the  meeting  at 
which  they  were  read;  but  the  edition  was  at 
once  exhausted.  Since  Mr.  Longfellow's  death 
their  republication  has  been  frequently  requested. 
Worthy  tributes  have  been  paid  to  the  poet's 
memory.  It  is  a  pleasing  thought  to  the  members 
of  the  Maine  Historical  Society  that  the  proceed 
ings  of  this  meeting  on  Mr.  Longfellow's  last 
birthday,  in  the  city  in  which  he  was  born,  came 
under  his  own  eye,  and  reawakened  thoughts  of 
his  "  Lost  Youth." 

H.  S.  B. 

PORTLAND,  May  18,  1882. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


RECORD  OF  MEETING 9 

OPENING   ADDRESS.     HON.   W.   G.    BARROWS,   Brunswick      15 
LAUS  LAUREATI.    JAMES   PHINNEY  BAXTER,  ESQ.,  Port 
land        22 

HENRY  WADSWORTH   LONGFELLOW,  AND  HIS  PATERNAL 

ANCESTRY.    REV.  HENRY  S.  BURRAGE,  Portland    .      29 
GENERAL  PELEG  WADSWORTH,  AND  THE  MATERNAL  AN 
CESTRY  OF  HENRY  W.  LONGFELLOW.    HON.  WILL 
IAM  GOOLD,  Windbam 52 

THE  PORTLAND  OF  LONGFELLOW'S  YOUTH.    EDWARD  H. 

ELWELL,  ESQ.,  Portland 81 

LONGFELLOW  AS  A  STUDENT  AND  PROFESSOR  AT  BOWDOIN 

COLLEGE.     A.  S.  PACKARD,  D.  D.,  Brunswick   .        .       99 
THE  GENIUS  OF  LONGFELLOW.     HON.  GEORGE  F.  TALBOT, 

Portland 107 

LETTER  FROM  HON.  JAMES  W.  BRADBURY  .  .  .126 
LETTER  AND  POEM  FROM  HON.  ISRAEL  WASHBURN,  JR.  .  130 
TRIBUTE  FROM  HON.  JOSEPH  WILLIAMSON  .  .  .  .133 

IN  MEMORIAM. 
PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  SOCIETY  AT  ITS   SPRING  MEETING, 

MAY  25,  1882 137 

ADDRESS  BY  REV.  THOMAS  HILL,  D.  D 157 

ADDRESS  BY  HON.  JOSEPH  W.  SYMONDS  ....  160 
ADDRESS  BY  REV.  ASA  DALTON 165 


EECOED  OF  MEETING. 


AT  a  meeting  held  in  Portland  on  Monday 
evening,  February  27,  1882,  the  Maine  Historical 
Society  celebrated  the  seventy-fifth  birthday  of 
Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow.  It  was  the  desire 
of  the  members  that  Mr.  Longfellow  himself  might 
honor  the  Society  by  his  presence  on  that  occasion, 
and  the  President,  Hon.  J.  W.  Bradbury,  extended 
to  him  an  earnest  invitation,  to  which  Mr.  Long 
fellow  sent  the  following  reply :  — 

CAMBRIDGE,  February  12,  1882. 

DEAB-  MR.  BRADBURY,  —  I  am  extremely  obliged  to 
you  for  your  cordial  invitation  to  attend  the  meeting  of 
the  Maine  Historical  Society,  on  the  27th  of  this  month, 
and  greatly  regret  that  I  am  prevented  by  illness  from 
accepting  it.  Rest  assured  that  I  highly  appreciate  the 
honor  the  Society  has  done  me  in  calling  this  meeting  on 
the  anniversary  of  my  birthday,  and  that  I  shall  always 
hold  it  in  grateful  remembrance.  Reciprocating  your 
good  wishes,  I  am  Yours  faithfully, 

HENRY  W.  LONGFELLOW. 


10  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

It  was  intended  that  the  meeting  should  be  held 
in  the  rooms  of  the  Society,  in  City  Building,  and 
the  walls  had  been  adorned  with  portraits  of  dis 
tinguished  members  of  the  Longfellow  and  Wads- 
worth  families,  while  in  a  case  had  been  arranged 
the  following  articles  :  — 

Letter  of  Stephen  Longfellow,  of  Newbury,  born  1685, 
the  blacksmith  and  ensign. 

Letter  of  Stephen  2d,  the  school-master,  son  of  the 
above. 

Letter  of  Stephen  3d,  the  judge,  son  of  the  above. 

Letter  of  Stephen  4th,  the  statesman,  son  of  the  above 
and  father  of  Henry,  the  poet. 

The  original  letter  of  Parson  Thomas  Smith,  inviting 
Stephen,  the  school-master,  to  visit  Portland. 

Silver  tankard  and  silver  porringer,  marked  "  S.  L.  Ex 
Dona  Patris"  made  in  1770. 

Autograph  letter  of  General  Peleg  Wadsworth. 

Stereoscopic  views  of  the  house  built  by  General  Peleg 
Wadsworth  in  the  town  of  Hiram,  Maine,  in  1800. 

Silhouette  portrait  of  General  Peleg  Wadsworth  in 
1784. 

Portrait  of  Stephen  Longfellow,  the  statesman,  painted 
by  King,  in  Washington,  about  the  year  1826. 

The  4th  of  July,  1804,  oration,  delivered  by  Long 
fellow,  father  of  the  poet,  MS.  and  print. 

A  drawing  of  the  Wads  worth-Longfellow  House  on 
Congress  Street,  as  it  stood  when  completed  in  1785, 
then  only  two  stories. 

An   autograph  poem,   entitled  "  Venice,   an    Italian 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  11 

Song,"  one  stanza,  dated  Portland  Academy,  March  17, 
1820,  and  signed  Henry  W.  Longfellow,  written  at  the 
age  of  thirteen  years. 

Early  printed  books  by  Longfellow:  "Manuel  de 
Proverbes  Dramatiques,"  1832;  "  Coplas  de  Don  Jorge 
Manrique,"  1833 ;  «  Outre-Mer,"  1833. 

The  poetical  works  of  Longfellow,  two  volumes  quarto, 
splendidly  illustrated  and  bound,  loaned  by  the  publish 
ers,  Messrs.  Houghton,  MifHin  &  Co.,  Boston. 

Sundry  autograph  poems  of  Longfellow. 

Portrait  of  Henry  W.  Longfellow,  painted  by  Badger, 
in  Brunswick,  Me.,  about  the  year  1830. 

Sketch  of  the  village  smithy  at  Cambridge,  1840,  with 
the  chestnut-tree. 

Photograph  of  the  chair  presented  to  the  poet  by  the 
children  of  Cambridge  in  1879,  made  from  the  wood  of 
the  chestnut-tree  near  the  village  smithy. 

But  at  an  early  hour  the  Library  was  crowded, 
and  it  was  found  necessary  to  adjourn  to  Reception 
Hall,  which  was  at  once  filled,  while  many  who 
sought  admission  were  turned  away.  Among  those 
present  were  the  poet's  brother,  Alexander  Long 
fellow,  and  family,  of  Portland ;  his  two  sisters, 
Mrs.  Annie  L.  Pierce,  of  Portland,  and  Mrs.  Mary 
L.  Greenleaf,  of  Cambridge,  Mass.;  and  his  nephew, 
Mr.  William  P.  P.  Longfellow,  of  Boston. 

In  the  absence  of  the  President  of  the  Society, 
Hon.  J.  W.  Bradbury,  of  Augusta,  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent,  Hon.  W.  G.  Barrows,  of  Brunswick,  presided. 


12  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

On  a  table  before  him  was  a  bust  of  Longfellow, 
by  Paul  Akers  ;  at  his  right  was  a  large  and  beau 
tiful  bouquet,  the  gift  of  Mrs.  John  B.  Brown ;  on 
the  wall  in  the  rear  of  the  Vice-President  was  sus 
pended  the  sword  presented  to  Commodore  Alex 
ander  Samuel  Wadsworth  by  the  citizens  of  Port 
land  ;  on  a  frame  at  the  left  were  drawings  of  the 
old  Longfellow  and  Wadsworth  houses. 

Judge  Barrows  delivered  the  opening  address. 
At  the  close  of  the  address,  on  motion  of  E.  H.  El- 
well,  Esq.,  of  Portland,  the  following  telegram  was 
sent  to  Mr.  Longfellow :  — 

PORTLAND,  February  27,  1882. 

To  H.  W.  LONGFELLOW,  Cambridge,  Mass.  : 

The  members  of  the  Maine  Historical  Society,  assem 
bled  with  friends,  in  honor  of  your  seventy-fifth  birthday, 
send  greetings  and  congratulations. 

H.  W.  BRYANT,  Recording  Secretary. 

James  P.  Baxter,  Esq.,  of  Portland,  then  read 
a  poem,  "  Laus  Laureati,"  and  near  the  close,  at 
the  words, 

"  And  now,  I  may 

This  wreath  from  Deering's  woods,  O  Master,  lay 
Upon  thy  brow," 

he  placed  a  chaplet  of  oak  leaves  upon  the  bust  of 
the  poet,  amid  long-continued  applause. 

Kev.  Henry  S.  Burrage,  of  Portland,  followed 
with  a  paper  on  "  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow 
and  his  Paternal  Ancestry." 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  13 

Hon.  William  Goold,  of  Windham,  read  a  paper 
on  "  Gen.  Peleg  Wadsworth,  the  Maternal  Grand 
father  of  Henry  W.  Longfellow." 

Edward  H.  Elwell,  Esq.,  of  Portland,  read  a 
paper  on  "  The  Portland  of  Longfellow's  Youth." 

Prof.  A.  S.  Packard,  D.D.,  of  Bowdoin  College, 
read  a  paper  on  "  Longfellow  as  a  Student  and 
Professor  at  Bowdoin  College." 

Hon.  George  F.  Talbot,  of  Portland,  read  a  paper 
on  "The  Genius  of  Longfellow." 

At  the  close  of  the  reading  of  these  papers, 
the  following  telegram  from  Mr.  Longfellow  was 
read :  — 

CAMBRIDGE,  February  27,  1882. 

To  H.  W.  BRYANT,  Recording  Secretary  of  Maine  His 
torical  Society,  Portland,  Me. : 

Your  telegram  received.  I  return  cordial  thanks  to 
the  members  of  the  Society,  and  am  grateful  for  this 
signal  mark  of  their  remembrance  and  regard. 

HENKY  W.  LONGFELLOW. 

The  Secretary  announced  letters  from  Hon.  J. 
W.  Bradbury  and  Hon.  Israel  Washburn,  Jr.,  but 
their  reading  was  omitted  on  account  of  the  late 
ness  of  the  hour.  They  will  be  found  at  the  close 
of  the  papers :  also  a  tribute  to  Mr.  Longfellow, 
by  Hon.  Joseph  Williamson,  of  Belfast,  which  was 
received  too  late  for  the  meeting. 

It  is  proper  to  add  in  this  connection  that  in 


14  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

the  city,  during  the  day,  flags  and  other  decora 
tions  were  displayed  on  the  public  buildings ;  on 
the  house  at  the  corner  of  Fore  and  Hancock 
streets  in  which  Mr.  Longfellow  was  born;  and 
on  many  private  residences ;  while  the  English 
steamers  in  port,  in  their  holiday  dress,  bore  beau 
tiful  testimony  to  the  fact  that  in  England  as  well 
as  in  America  the  poems  of  Longfellow  have  en 
deared  him  to  the  hearts  of  the  people. 


OPENING  ADDRESS. 

BY  HON.  W.  G.  BARROWS,  BRUNSWICK. 

BRETHREN    OF    THE    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY,    LADIES    AND 
GENTLEMEN  : 

I  bespeak  your  kind  indulgence  for  my  inex 
perience,  and  your  prompt  and  zealous  coopera 
tion,  in  undertaking  the  performance  of  my  duties 
on  this  occasion.  To  the  members  of  the  Society 
it  is  well  known  that  the  punctual  attendance  of 
our  President  has  made  the  Vice-Presidency  prac 
tically  a  sinecure,  and  this,  with  my  own  enforced 
absence  at  most  of  the  extraordinary  meetings  of 
the  society,  must  be  my  apology  for  my  deficien 
cies  now,  which  I  look  to  your  kindness  to  supply. 

I  feel  that  it  would  not  be  quite  proper  for  me 
to  direct  the  crier  to  proclaim  that  all  who  have 
anything  to  do  here  to-night  may  draw  near  and 
give  their  attendance,  and  they  shall  be  heard,  and 
then  quietly  await  the  result :  but  I  have  an  im 
pression  that,  in  presiding  at  such  a  gathering, 
the  best  form  is  the  nearest  possible  approach  to 
a  want  of  form,  or  at  least  of  formality,  and  I  have 
no  fear  that  in  this  assembly  the  divine  law  of 


16  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

order  would  be  greatly  infringed  even  if  the  chair 
were  altogether  vacant. 

But  I  believe  it  to  be  a  part  of  my  pleasant 
duty  to  state  the  object  of  our  meeting. 

The  first  notice  of  it  which  I  saw  in  the  news 
papers  spoke  of  it,  if  I  remember  rightly,  as  a 
meeting  to  do  honor  to  the  poet  Longfellow  on  the 
occasion  of  his  seventy-fifth  birthday.  Perhaps  it 
would  be  more  accurate  to  say  that  it  is  a  meet 
ing  to  testify  our  sense  of  the  honor  he  has  done 
to  this,  his  birthplace.  It  is  very  little  we  can  do 
to  honor  him  whose  own  works  have  long  ago 
crowned  him  a  king  in  the  hearts  of  men,  to  bear 
sway  wherever  and  so  long  as  the  English  lan 
guage  is  spoken  or  understood. 

We  meet  to  claim  for  this  good  city  the  honor 
which  from  time  immemorial  has  always  been  con 
ceded  to  the  birthplaces  of  poets  and  seers,  —  to 
do  our  part  to  link  the  name  of  "  the  dear  old 
town"  with  his,  as  he  has  linked  it  in  the  loving 
description  which  he  has  given  in  the  idyl  of 
"My  Lost  Youth." 

For  a  more  potent  reason  than  the  chiseled  in 
scription  on  the  ancient  mill  which  links  the  name 
of  Oliver  Basselin  with  the  Valley  of  the  Vire,  in 
all  coming  time,  "  shall  the  poet's  memory  here 
of  the  landscape  make  a  part,"  because  we  know 
that  the  lyrics  of  our  poet  are  indeed 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  17 

"  Songs  of  that  high  art 
Which,  as  winds  do  in  the  pine, 
Find  an  answer  in  each  heart," 

and  we  meet  to  bear  witness  to  this. 

More  than  this,  we  meet  to  testify  our  sense  of 
personal  obligation  to  him,  not  merely  for  the  ex 
quisite  pleasure  afforded  by  the  wonderful  melody 
of  his  verse,  but  for  the  didactic  force  that  has  im 
pressed  it  on  us  that 

"  All  common  things,  each  day's  events, 

That  with  the  hour  begin  and  end, 
Our  pleasures  and  our  discontents, 

Are  rounds  by  which  we  may  ascend." 

It  is  no  mere  gospel  of  idle  contentment  with 
pleasant  trifles  that  he  has  preached  to  us.  Even 
the  dullest  of  us  could  not  read  him  without  being 
moved  at  least  to  strive  to  place  ourselves  on  a 
higher  plane,  —  Excelsior.  In  ancient  days  poet 
and  seer  were  convertible  terms,  and  the  best  of 
our  modern  poets  are  prophets  also. 

What  insight  was  it  which  made  him,  in  Jan 
uary,  1861,  rouse  us  with 

"  Listen,  my  children,  and  you  shall  hear 
Of  the  midnight  ride  of  Paul  Revere," 

when  all  unconsciously  we  stood  so  near  another 
and  bloodier  Lexington  ? 

Philanthropy  of  the  purest,  patriotism  of  the 
most  exalted  kind,  have  by  turns  inspired  him ; 


18  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

and  whether  he  sang  of  the  "  Slave's  Dream/'  or 
the  "  Warning  "  drawn  from  the 

"  Poor,  blind  Samson  in  this  land, 
Shorn  of  his  strength,  and  bound  in  bonds  of  steel," 

or  of  the  Cumberland,  sunk  in  Hampton  Roads, 
or  of  the  beautiful  youth  slain  at  the  ford,  the 
lesson  was  timely,  and  it  told  the  story  well  of 
the  heroism  and  endurance  which  carried  this 
nation  through  its  last  great  struggle  triumphant. 
We  meet  to  pass  an  hour  in  expressing  our  ad 
miration  for  the  bard,  the  scholar,  and  the  patriot, 
whose  every  utterance  from  his  youth  up  has 
been  pure  and  noble,  and  has  tended  to  raise  this 
nation  in  the  scale  of  humanity.  I  am  proud  to 
say  that  when  he  lived  with  us  he  was  an  active 
member  of  this  Society,  and  the  ripe  and  golden 
fruits  of  his  historical  studies  we  have  in  the  story 
of  Priscilla,  the  Puritan  Maiden ;  in  the  pen 
sive  loveliness  of  "Evangeline,"  that  tale  of  the 
"  strength,  submission,  and  patience  "  of  the  Aca 
dian  refugees ;  in  the  musical  song  of  "  Hiawa 
tha  ;  "  and  in  many  another  gem  evoked  from  the 
Chronicles  of  the  Past  and  set  in  tuneful  verse. 
But,  after  all,  it  seems  to  me  that  that  which 
brings  him  nearer  to  our  hearts,  and  has  more  to 
do  with  bringing  us  together  here  to-night,  than 
his  wide-spread  renown,  or  the  fame  that  attaches 
to  his  more  stately  and  elaborate  poems,  is  the 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  19 

light  which  he  has  thrown  around  home  and 
hearth  and  heart  in  some  of  those  lighter  but  un- 
equaled  lyrics,  which  from  time  to  time  have 
"gone  through  us  with  a  thrill/'  which  are 
haunting  our  memories  still,  and  which  are  and 
will  always  be  dear  to  us  because  dear  to  those 
whom  we  love.  Who  of  us  can  think  of  home, 
now,  and  all  that  we  hold  dear  in  it,  without  some 
how  associating  with  it  and  them  reminiscences  of 
"  The  Footsteps  of  Angels,"  "  The  Golden  Mile- 
Stone,"  "  The  Old  Clock  on  the  Stairs,"  "  The 
Children's  Hour,"  "The  Fire  of  Drift-Wood," 
"  The  Wind  over  the  Chimney,"  and  "  Daybreak," 
and  "Twilight,"  and  "  Curfew,"  and  the  "Psalm," 
and  the  "  Goblet  of  Life,"  and  "  The  Keaper  and 
the  Flowers"?  And  where  can  I  stop,  having 
begun  to  enumerate  ? 

For  nearly  thirty  years  I  have  occupied  the 
house  he  lived  in  when  in  Brunswick,  —  an  old 
house  whose  first  proprietors  have  long  since 
passed  away ;  and  I  sometimes  wonder  whether  it 
is,  in  his  thought,  one  of  the  "  Haunted  Houses," 
through  whose 

"  Open  doors 

The  harmless  phantoms  on  their  errands  glide, 
With  feet  that  make  no  sound  upon  the  floors." 

Since  the  wonderful  legend  of  "  Sandalphon  " 
first  made  a  lodgment  in  my  memory,  more  than 


20  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

a  score  of  years  ago,  I  cannot  number  the  times  I 
have  been  called  upon  to  repeat  it  in  the  stillness 
of  the  evening  hour  and  in  the  weary  night 
watches,  because  its  melodious  numbers  had  in 
them  a  spell  "to  quiet  the  fever  and  pain  "  of  one 
who  has  now  for  years  breathed  the  fragrance  that 
is  "  wafted  through  the  streets  of  the  city  immor 
tal."  And  hence  it  is  that  "  the  legend  I  feel  is 
a  part  of  the  hunger  and  thirst  of  the  heart,"  and 
my  warmest  gratitude  goes  forth  to  him  who  min 
istered  comfort  to  the  invalid  in  the  sweet  strains 
that  breathe  unwavering  faith  and  trust  in  the 
good  All-Father.  Hence  I  say  that  we  meet  here 
to  express  not  simply  our  admiration  of  the  poet, 
our  sense  of  obligation  to  the  teacher,  the  patriot, 
and  the  philanthropist,  but  also  our  reverent  affec 
tion  for  the  man  who  has  done  so  much  to  brighten 
and  cheer  not  only  our  own  lives,  but  the  lives  of 
those  we  love,  in  sickness  and  in  health. 

Not  he  the  poet  of  despair,  or  morbid  melan 
choly,  or  depressing  doubt,  misbegotten  by  the 
wild  self-conceit  which  assumes  that  the  finite 
human  intellect  is  capable  of  penetrating  all  mys 
teries  because  it  has  mastered  some,  and  madly 
argues  that  it  is  a  proof  of  superior  wisdom  to  re 
ject  everything  it  cannot  understand.  Not  so  he, 
but  the  poet  of  a  broad  Christian  faith  and  an 
unfading  hope  that  "  what  we  know  not  now  we 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  21 

shall  know  hereafter/'  if  we  strive  in  earnest  to 
rise  above  "  that  which  is  of  the  earth  earthy." 

I  think  his  motto  in  all  his  productions  must 
have  been,  "  Nee  satis  est  pulchra  esse  poemata  — 
dulcia  sunto." 

"  'T  is  not  enough  a  poem  's  finely  writ ; 
It  must  affect  and  captivate  the  soul." 

If   success  can  be  predicated  of  any  mortal  life, 
surely  his  has  been  a  success. 

Ilacriv  yap  cv^>povo\i(JL  crv^tx^ta^et  rv^rj. 

The  Maine  Historical  Society  and  their  guests, 
assembled  at  his  birthplace  to  celebrate  the  birth 
day  of  their  former  member,  the  renowned  poet 
Longfellow,  send  him  their  fervent  and  united 
wishes  for  his  health  and  happiness. 


LA.US  IAUREATI. 

BY  JAMES   PHINNEY  BAXTER,   PORTLAND. 

I  SING  no  common  theme,  but  of  a  man,  — 
One  who,  full-voiced,  the  highway  of  the  King 
Gladdens  with  song ;  inspiring  lives  which  span 
A  fruitless  field  where  little  joy  may  spring, 
And  which,  from  birth,  may  win  no  better  thing 
Than  paltry  bread,  and  shelter  from  the  blast, 
Till  unto  death's  low  house  they  come  at  last. 

It  needs  more  fluent  tongue  than  mine  to  sing 

In  fitting  measure  of  a  poet  born,  — 

Greater  than  crosiered  priest  or  sceptred  king, 

Since  such  are  made,  and  may  by  chance  be  shorn 

Of  all  their  glory  by  to-morrow  morn  ; 

But  born  a  poet,  he  shall  surely  be 

Ever  a  poet  to  eternity. 

Of  such  I  strive  to  sing :  one  who  shall  live 

In  Fame's  high  house  while  stars  make  glad  the  sky, 

That  happy  house  which  many  hapless  give 

Life's  choicest  pearls  to  gain,  since  none  may  die 

Who  come  within  its  halls  so  fair  and  high. 

Would  I  might  win  it,  with  no  thought  but  this, 

That  I  might  others  bring  soul-health  and  bliss. 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  23 

But,  Master,  one  who  is  about  to  die 

Brings  thee  a  crown,  which,  though  not  one  of  bay, 

May  haply  mind  thee  of  some  things  gone  by 

Pleasant  to  think  of  —  matters  put  away 

In  rooms  forgot,  where  truant  memories  play 

At  hide  and  seek  ;  for  beareth  it,  forsooth, 

Savor  of  things  well  loved  by  thee  in  youth. 

Of  Deering's  Woods,  which  whisper  softly  still, 

A  boy's  will  is  the  wind's  will,  as  of  yore 

They  lisped  to  thee,  where  sweet-voiced  birds  would  trill, 

In  haunts  wherein  thou  soughtest  tuneful  lore  ; 

Of  bluff  and  beach  along  our  rugged  shore 

Girting  the  bay,  whose  isles  enchanted  drew 

Thy  venturous  thoughts  to  havens  ever  new. 

Dear  Master,  let  me  take  thy  hand  a  space 
And  lead  thee  gently  wheresoe'er  I  may  ; 
With  the  salt  sea's  cool  breath  upon  thy  face, 
And  in  thine  ears  the  music  of  the  spray, 
Which  rapt  in  days  agone  thy  soul  away, 
Where  hung  full  low  the  golden  fruit  of  truth, 
Within  the  reach  of  thy  aspiring  youth. 

Thou  knowest  well  the  place :  here  built  George  Cleeves 
Almost  two  centuries  before  thy  birth  ; 
Here  was  his  corn-field ;  here  his  lowly  eaves 
Sheltered  the  swallows,  and  around  his  hearth 
The  red-men  crouched  —  poor  souls  of  little  worth  : 
Thou  with  clear  vision  seest  them,  I  know, 
As  they  were  in  the  flesh  long  years  ago. 


24  HENRY   WADS  WORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

Surely  the  shrewd,  persistent  pioneer 

Built  better  than  he  knew :  he  thought  to  build 

A  shelter  for  himself,  his  kith  and  gear ; 

But  felled  the  trees,  and  grubbed  and  plowed  and  tilled, 

That  in  the  course  of  time  might  be  fulfilled 

A  wondrous  purpose,  being  no  less  than  this, 

That  here  a  poet  might  be  born  to  bliss. 

Ah  I  could  he  but  have  tracked  adown  the  dim, 
Long,  weary  path  of  years,  and  stood  to-day 
With  thee  and  me,  how  would  the  eyes  of  him 
Have  flashed  with  pride  and  joy  to  hear  men  say, 
Here  Cleeves  built  the  first  house  in  Casco  Bay ! 
Here,  too,  was  our  loved  laureate's  place  of  birth, 
And  sooth,  God  sent  his  singers  upon  earth. 

Thou  canst  not  find  Clay  Cove  ?     '  T  was  here,  wilt  say, 

When  thou  didst  listen  to  the  runnet's  song, 

Leaping  to  meet  the  full  lips  of  the  bay. 

Well,  let  us  climb  Munjoy;  lo  !  good  and  strong, 

In  the  same  coat  of  red  it  hath  so  long 

Disported  bravely,  spite  of  flood  and  flame, 

The  old  Observatory,  still  the  same. 

And  there  the  forts,  and  farther  seaward  yet, 
A  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  of  cloud  by  day, 
The  light-house  standeth  still,  as  firmly  set 
Upon  its  flinty  throne  amidst  the  spray 
As  erst  when  thou  didst  dream  thy  soul  away 
To  the  hoarse  Hebrides,  or  bright  Azore, 
Or  flashing  surges  of  San  Salvador. 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  25 

And,  ere  we  leave,  look  where  still  sleep  the  two 
Brave  captains,  who  in  bloody  shrouds  were  brought 
From  the  great  sea-fight,  whilst  the  bugles  blew, 
And  drums  rolled,  and  gaunt  cannon  terror  wrought 
In  childish  hearts ;  the  place  thou  oft  has  sought 
To  dream  the  fight  o'er,  while  the  busy  hum 
Of  toil  from  wharf  and  street  would  strangely  come. 

But  now  along  the  teeming  thoroughfare 
Thread  we  our  way.     Strange  faces,  sayest  thou  ? 
Yet  names  well  known  to  thee  some  haply  bear, 
And  shouldst  thou  scan  more  closely  face  and  brow, 
Old  looks  would  come  well  known  to  thee  enow, 
Which  shone  on  faces  of  the  girls  and  boys 
Who  shared  with  thee  the  sweets  of  youthful  joys. 

And  now  we  come  where,  rough  with  rent  and  scar, 
The  ancient  rope- walk  stood,  low  roofed  and  gray, 
Embalmed  with  scent  of  oakum,  flax,  and  tar, 
Cob  webbed  and  dim,  and  crammed  with  strange  array 
Of  things  which  lure  the  thoughts  of  youth  away 
To  wondrous  climes,  where  never  ship  hath  been, 
Nor  foot  hath  .trod,  nor  curious  eye  hath  seen. 

Gone?     Why,  I  dreamt !     A  moment  since  'twas  there, 
Or  seemed  to  be.     Their  lives'  frail  thread,  't  is  true, 
The  spinners  long  since  spun  ;  the  maidens  fair, 
Swinging  and  laughing  as  their  shadows  flew 
Along  the  grass,  have  swung  from  earthly  view, 
And  the  gay  mountebanks  have  vaulted  quite 
Into  oblivion's  eternal  night. 


26  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

And  they  are  gone :  the  woman  at  the  well ; 
The  old  man  ringing  in  the  noontide  heat ; 
The  shameless  convicts  with  their  faces  fell ; 
The  boy  and  kite,  and  steeds  with  flying  feet, 
And  sportsmen  ambushed  midst  of  leafage  sweet; 
Aye,  and  the  ships  rejoicing  in  the  breeze 
Are  rotting  on  the  shores  of  unknown  seas. 

But,  Master,  let  us  fare  to  old  Bramhall, 

Up  Free  and  Main  streets  —  this  is  State ;  full  well 

The  house  where  Mellen  lived  thou  must  recall, 

Seeing  a  poet  once  therein  might  dwell; 

Though  short  of  Fame's  fair  house  he  hapless  fell, 

Tracing  his  name  half  listless,  in  the  reach 

Of  every  tide  which  sweeps  Time's  treacherous  beach. 

And  here  is  cool  Bramhall,  and  there  still  stands 
The  Deering  house,  as  thou  hast  known  it  long ; 
Where  Bracket's  house  stood,  ere  with  murderous  hands 
The  Indians  thronged  around  it  — witched  of  wrong  — 
One  August  day,  with  torch  and  savage  song, 
And  swept  it  from  the  earth.     Ah  !  little  hope 
Beamed  then  within  poor  Falmouth's  horoscope. 

But  time  hath  made  all  right  now.     See,  where  rest 
The  eternal  hills,  which  once,  with  fervid  eyes, 
The  Indian  saw  within  the  havening  west, 
And  called  the  crystal  mountains,  poetwise,  — 
Dreaming  that  thitherward  lay  Paradise  ; 
Whither  each  evening  went  the  chief  of  day, 
Bedecked  with  painted  robes  and  feathers  gay. 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  27 

T  was  not  so  far  amiss,  for  type  more  grand. 

Of  the  celestial  hills  no  eye  hath  seen  : 

Towering  in  splendid  majesty  they  stand, 

Like  portals  heaven's  immortal  courts  to  screen,  — 

Curtained  with  buoyant  clouds  of  purest  sheen, 

Which  rise  and  fall,  yet  ever  seem  to  hold 

A  mystery  bosomed  in  each  shadowy  fold. 

Pile  upon  pile  they  rise  and  meet  the  sky, 

Blue,  over-arching,  like  a  mighty  dome. 

Even  such  a  temple  doth  my  spirit's  eye 

Limn  for  those  souls  who  through  achievement  come 

To  well- won  fame.     Lo  !  in  this  glorious  home 

I  see  them  sit  august,  and,  crowned  with  bays, 

Across  the  silent  centuries  calmly  gaze. 

Homer  unkempt,  with  close,  sagacious  look  ; 
Plato,  in  whose  calm  face  pale  mysteries  bide  ; 
Virgil,  smooth-cheeked  with  oaten  pipe  and  crook; 
Grave  Sophocles,  with  eyes  unsatisfied, 
Where  riddles  all  unread  in  ambush  hide  ; 
Keen-eyed  Euripides,  whose  books  were  men, 
And  jovial  Horace  with  satiric  pen. 

And  dear  old  Chaucer,  loved  of  gods  and  men, 
Benign,  keen-witted,  child-like,  quaint,  and  wise  ; 
Spenser,  pure  knight,  whose  lance  was  his  good  pen, 
The  praise  of  ladyes  fayre  his  loved  emprise  ; 
Great  Shakespeare,  with  a  seer's  unhindered  eyes ; 
Blind  Milton,  listening  for  a  seraph's  wings ; 
And  Burns,  in  whose  blithe  face  a  sky-lark  sings  ; 


28  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

Wordsworth,  so  simple ;  and  poor  fragile  Keats, 

Who  poured  his  heart  out  like  a  nightingale, 

Whose  affluent  verse  half  cloys  with  wealth  of  sweets, 

A  master,  spite  of  faulty  work  and  frail, 

Whose  luckless  loss  the  world  full  long  shall  wail ; 

And  here,  placed  fairly  in  this  hall  of  Fame, 

A  glorious  seat  with  newly-carven  name. 

'T  is  plain,  dear  Master,  't  is  thy  name,  forsooth, 

Deep  graven  in  the  everlasting  stone, 

There  shall  it  be  untouched  of  Time's  sharp  tooth, 

While  sunshine  kisses  bud  to  bloom.     And  zone 

Answers  to  zone  with  fruitage  all  its  own ; 

And  quiring  stars,  with  universal  song, 

The  boundless  arch  of  heaven  majestic  throng. 

Here  will  I  bid  thee,  Master,  fond  good-by, 
Wishing  thee  soul-health  and  full  many  a  day 
Of  blissful  living,  ere  thou  mayest  try 
The  scope  of  other  joys.     And  now,  I  may 
This  wreath  from  Deering's  Woods,  O  Master,  lay 
Upon  thy  brow.     God  speed  thee  while  the  sun 
Shines  on  the  faithful  work  which  thou  hast  done. 


HENRY  W.  LONGFELLOW  AND  HIS  PATER 
NAL  ANCESTRY. 

BY   REV.   HENUY   S.    BURRAGE,    PORTLAND. 

IN  Parson  Smith's  "Journal,"  the  source  of  so 
much  of  what  we  know  concerning  the  early  his 
tory  of  Portland,  occurs  this  entry  under  date  of 
April  11,  1745:  "  Mr.  Longfellow  came  here  to 
live."  This  was  Stephen  Longfellow,  the  great 
grandfather  of  the  poet,  Henry  Wadsworth  Long 
fellow,  who  was  born  in  Portland,  February  27, 
1807,  and  in  honor  of  whose  seventy-fifth  birth 
day  we  are  now  assembled. 

Stephen  Longfellow  was  a  native  of  Newbury, 
Mass.  His  grandfather,  William  Longfellow,  was 
born  in  Yorkshire  County,  England,  about  the 
year  1651.  In  early  life  he  came  to  Newbury, 
where,  November  10,  1678,  he  was  married  to 
Anne,  daughter  of  Henry  Sewall  (who  began  the 
settlement  of  Newbury),  and  a  sister  of  Samuel 
Sewall,  afterwards  Chief  Justice  of  the  Province 
of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  Judge  of  Probate  for 
Suffolk  County.  Concerning  his  occupation,  we 
only  know  that  he  was  a  merchant,  and  resided  in 


30  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

that  part  of  the  town  then  known  as  the  "Falls." 
In  1690,  as  Ensign  of  the  Newbury  company,  he 
had  a  part  in  the  ill-fated  expedition  to  Quebec, 
under  Sir  William  Phips.  Earlier  in  the  year 
Sir  William  had  captured  the  French  stronghold, 
Port  Royal.  It  was  now  his  purpose  to  strike  a 
more  decisive  blow  at  the  French  power  in  North 
America.  A  larger  command  was  given  to  him. 
With  a  fleet  consisting  of  thirty-two  vessels,  hav 
ing  on  board  2,200  soldiers,  he  sailed  from  Boston 
Harbor,  August  9th.  His  progress  was  slow,  and 
it  was  not  until  October  5th  that  he  appeared  be 
fore  Quebec.  The  attempt  to  capture  the  place 
failed,  and  the  expedition  was  abandoned.  On 
the  return  a  violent  storm  overtook  the  fleet  in 
the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  scattered  the  vessels, 
and  one  of  them,  containing  the  Newbury  com 
pany,  went  ashore  at  Anticosti,  a  desolate  island, 
and  William  Longfellow,  with  nine  others,  was 
drowned.  This  was  on  the  night  of  the  31st  of 
October.  The  sad  tidings  at  length  reached  New 
bury.  Under  date  of  November  21st,  Judge  Sew- 
all  made  this  entry  in  his  diary  :  — 

"  'T  was  Tuesday,  the  18th  of  November,  that  I  heard 
of  the  death  of  Cnpt.  Stephen  Greenleaf,  Lieut.  James 
Smith,  and  Ensign  William  Longfellow,  Sergeant  In 
crease  Pilsbury,  who,  with  Will  Mitchell,  Jabez  Mnsgro, 
and  four  more,  were  drowned  at  Cape  Britoon  [an  error] 
on  Friday  night,  the  last  of  October." 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  31 

Of  William  Longfellow's  six  children,  one, 
named  Stephen  Longfellow  (for  Stephen  Dummer, 
Mrs.  Longfellow's  grandfather),  had  died  in  early 
childhood,  and  to  another  son,  born  September  22, 
1685,  the  same  name  was  given.  This  was  the 
father  of  Stephen  Longfellow,  who  came  to  Port 
land  in  1745.  Concerning  his  quiet,  uneventful 
life  we  know  but  little.  He  became  a  blacksmith, 
and  we  may  picture  him,  like  the  poet's  hero  of 
the  village  smithy,  with  large  and  sinewy  hands, 
brawny  arms,  his  brow  wet  with  honest  sweat,  as 
he  swings  his  heavy  sledge  "  with  measured  beat 
and  slow." 

Stephen  Longfellow,  the  blacksmith,  married, 
March  25,  1714,  Abigail  Tompson,  daughter  of 
Rev.  Edward  Tompson,  of  Marshfield,  by  whom 
he  had  ten  children.  In  his  son  Stephen,  born 
February  7,  1723,  he  seems  early  to  have  discov 
ered  signs  of  intellectual  promise,  and  he  sent  him 
to  Harvard  College,  where  he  was  graduated  in 
1742.  The  father  was  permitted  to  follow  the 
honorable  career  of  his  son  for  nineteen  years 
after  he  came  to  Portland ;  and  when  he  died, 
November  7,  1764,  he  left  him  a  small  legacy.  It 
is  an  evidence  of  the  son's  affectionate  regard  for 
his  father  that,  on  receiving  this  legacy,  he  formed 
the  purpose  of  converting  it  into  a  permanent 
memorial.  Taking  the  silver  coin,  he  sent  it  by 


32  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

packet  to  Boston  ;  but  unfortunately  the  vessel 
was  lost,  and  the  money  with  it.  When  the  ti 
dings  reached  Mr.  Longfellow,  he  made  up  a  like 
amount  of  silver  coin,  which  reached  Boston  in 
safety,  and  was  manufactured  by  John  Butler,  a 
well-known  silversmith,  into  a  tankard,  a  can,  and 
two  porringers.  Each  bore  the  initials  S.  L.,  and 
the  added  words  of  grateful  remembrance,  Ex  Dono 
Patris.  The  tankard  has  been  preserved  ;  and 
one  of  the  porringers,  after  a  somewhat  eventful 
history,  has  found  its  way  back  into  the  family, 
and  is  one  of  the  treasures  of  the  poet's  brother, 
Alexander  W.  Longfellow. 

Before  taking  up  his  residence  in  Portland, 
Stephen  Longfellow  had  been  keeping  school  in 
York.  He  came  to  Portland  on  the  following  let 
ter  of  invitation  from  Parson  Smith :  — 

FALMOUTII,  November  15,  1744. 

gIR? We  need  a  school-master.    Mr.  Plaisted  advises 

of  your  being  at  liberty.  If  you  will  undertake  the  serv 
ice  in  this  place,  you  may  depend  upon  our  being  gener 
ous,  and  your  being  satisfied.  I  wish  you'd  come  as 
soon  as  possible,  and  doubt  not  but  you  '11  find  things 
much  to  your  content.  Your  humble  ser't, 

THOS.  SMITH. 

P.  S.  I  write  in  the  name  and  with  the  power  of  the 
selectmen  of  the  town.  If  you  can't  serve  us,  pray  ad 
vise  us  of  it  per  first  opportunity. 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  33 

The  invitation  was  favorably  considered,  and  in 
April  following,  as  Parson  Smith  records,  Mr. 
Longfellow  came  here  to  enter  upon  his  work. 
An  appropriation  of  fifty  pounds  had  been  voted 
by  the  town  toward  the  salary  of  a  grammar 
teacher ;  and  the  people  on  the  Neck,  as  Portland 
was  then  called,  were  to  have  his  exclusive  serv 
ices,  provided  they  contributed  the  remainder  of 
his  salary.  Mr.  Longfellow  opened  his  school 
April  17,  1745,  in  a  building  on  the  corner  of 
Middle  Street  and  School,  now  Pearl  Street.  The 
number  of  scholars  is  not  known.  In  the  follow 
ing  year  it  was  fifty,  and  on  the  list  which  has 
been  preserved  occur  the  names  of  the  prominent 
families  of  that  day,  —  Smith,  Moody,  Brackett, 
Waite,  Bradbury,  Jones,  Cox,  Gooding,  Freeman, 
Bryant,  Coffin,  Stickney,  Proctor,  and  Motley.  For 
that  year  his  salary  was  two  hundred  pounds.  As 
the  currency  then  was  at  a  depreciation  of  seven 
to  one,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  office  was  not  a 
very  remunerative  one  even  with  the  tuition, 
which  for  each  scholar  was  eighteen  shillings  and 
eight  pence  per  year,  and  eight  shillings  per 
quarter. 

In  a  manuscript  note,  in  his  copy  of  Smith's 
"  Journal,"  now  in  the  Public  Library,  Mr.  Willis 
says,  "  I  think  Mr.  Longfellow  boarded  with  Mr. 
Smith  when  he  came  here  until  his  marriage." 

3 


34  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

This  occurred  October  19,  1749.  His  wife  was 
Tabitha  Bragdon,  a  daughter  of  Samuel  Bragdon, 
of  York.  After  he  built  his  house  on  Fore  Street, 
on  the  lot  now  occupied  by  the  Eagle  Sugar  Ee- 
finery,  he  transferred  his  school  thither,  and  he 
continued  to  be  the  principal  instructor  in  the 
town  until  1760,  when  he  was  appointed  Clerk  of 
the  Judicial  Court.  When  Mowatt  destroyed  the 
town,  October  18,  1775,  Mr.  Longfellow's  house 
was  burned.  The  committee  appointed  to  examine 
and  liquidate  the  accounts  of  those  who  suffered 
in  the  burning  of  the  town  estimated  his  loss  at 
£1,119.  The  house  was  not  rebuilt,  and  the  old 
cellar  was  visible  on  the  unoccupied  lot  until  the 
erection  of  the  brick  building  by  the  Sugar  Ee- 
finery,  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago. 

After  the  destruction  of  his  house,  Mr.  Longfel 
low  removed  to  Gorham,  where  he  resided  until 
his  death,  May  1,  1790.  In  a  brief  sketch  of  his 
life  Mr.  Willis  says,  "  Mr.  Longfellow  filled  many 
important  offices  in  the  town  to  universal  accept 
ance.  He  was  about  fifteen  years  grammar-school 
master ;  parish  clerk  twenty-three  years ;  town 
clerk  twenty-two  years ;  many  years  clerk  of  the 
proprietors  of  the  common  land  ;  and  from  the 
establishment  of  the  county,  in  1760,  to  the  com 
mencement  of  the  Revolution,  in  1775,  he  was 
Eegister  of  Probate  and  Clerk  of  the  Judicial 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  35 

Courts.  His  handwriting,  in  beautiful  characters, 
symbolical  of  the  purity  and  excellence  of  his  own 
moral  character,  is  impressed  on  all  the  records  of 
the  town  and  county  through  many  successive 
years." 

Of  his  three  sons,  Stephen,  Samuel,  and  William, 
the  latter  died  in  early  life,  while  Samuel  left  no 
children.  Stephen,  the  oldest  son,  was  born  Au 
gust  3,  1750.  December  13,  1773,  he  married 
Patience  Young,  of  York.  His  home  was  in  Gor- 
ham,  and  there  he  died,  greatly  respected,  May 
28,  1824.  He  was  extensively  employed  as  a 
surveyor,  and  received  appointments  to  various 
town  offices.  He  represented  Gorham  in  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  eight  years.  For 
several  years  he  was  Senator  from  Cumberland 
County.  He  was  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  from  1797  to  1811,  and  there  are  those  still 
among  us  who  remember  him  as  he  drove  into 
Portland  in  an  old  square-top  chaise,  and,  dis 
mounting,  made  his  way  into  the  Court  House 
escorted  by  the  sheriff.  He  was  a  fine-looking 
gentleman,  with  the  bearing  of  the  old  school,  was 
erect,  portly,  rather  taller  than  the  average,  had 
a  strongly  marked  face,  and  his  hair  was  tied  be 
hind  in  a  club  with  black  ribbon.  To  the  close  of 
his  life  he  wore  the  old-style  dress  —  knee-breeches, 
a  long  waistcoat,  and  white  top  boots.  He  was  a 


36  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

man  of  sterling  qualities  of  mind  and  heart,  great 
integrity,  and  sound  common  sense. 

Stephen,  his  second  child,  born  in  Gorham 
March  23,  1776,  was  the  father  of  Henry  Wads- 
worth  Longfellow.  He  entered  Harvard  College 
in  1794.  A  college  friend,  Daniel  Appleton  White, 
two  years  his  senior,  said  of  him  in  later  life, 
"  He  was  evidently  a  well-bred  gentleman  when 
he  left  the  paternal  mansion  for  the  University. 
He  seemed  to  breathe  an  atmosphere  of  purity,  as 
his  natural  element,  while  his  bright  intelligence, 
buoyant  spirits,  and  social  warmth  diffused  a  sun 
shine  of  joy  that  made  his  presence  always  glad 
some."  That  he  was  a  favorite  in  his  class  is  the 
testimony  of  his  associates.  But  he  went  to  col 
lege  for  other  purposes  than  good  fellowship.  He 
was  an  earnest,  exemplary  student.  His  scholar 
ship  entitled  him  to  high  rank,  and  having  com 
pleted  the  course  he  left  the  University  with  a  full 
share  of  its  honors. 

After  his  graduation,  in  1798,  Mr.  Longfellow 
entered  the  law  office  of  Salmon  Chase,  an  uncle 
of  Salmon  Portland  Chase,  late  Chief  Justice  of 
the  United  States ;  and  he  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  1801.  He  at  once  entered  upon  an  exten 
sive  and  lucrative  practice.  Three  years  later, 
January  1,  1804,  he  married  Zilpah,  eldest  daugh 
ter  of  General  Peleg  Wadsworth,  who  built  and 


SE  VENTY-FIFTH  BIR  THDA  Y.  37 

then  occupied  the  brick  house  which  is  still  stand 
ing  on  Congress  Street,  adjoining  the  Preble  House, 
and  is  known  as  the  Longfellow  House.  In  the 
same  year  he  was  selected  by  the  citizens  of  the 
town  to  deliver  an  oration  on  the  Fourth  of  July. 
After  his  marriage  Mr.  Longfellow  lived  a  year 
in  the  Wadsworth  House.  During  the  next  year 
his  home  was  in  a  small  house  on  the  corner  of 
Temple  Street,  opposite  the  First  Parish  Church. 
Samuel  Stephenson,  a  rich  merchant  of  Portland, 
then  lived  in  the  large  square  wooden  house  which 
is  still  standing  at  the  corner  of  Fore  and  Hancock 
streets.  His  wife,  Abigail  Longfellow,  was  a  sister 
of  Stephen  Longfellow,  the  lawyer,  and  as  her 
husband  had  been  suddenly  called  to  the  West 
Indies,  on  business,  she  invited  her  brother  with 
his  family  to  spend  the  winter  of  1806-7  with  her. 
Thus  it  was  that  on  the  27th  of  February,  1807, 
in  this  house,  —  which  should  be  known  as  the 
Stephenson  and  not  the  Longfellow  House,  —  and 
during  this  temporary  residence,  was  born  their 
second  son,  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow,  named 
for  Mrs.  Longfellow's  brother,  Lieutenant  Henry 
Wadsworth  of  the  U.  S.  Navy,  who  on  the  night 
of  September  4,  1804,  in  the  harbor  of  Tripoli,  lost 
his  life,  a  voluntary  sacrifice,  in  a  gallant  endeavor 
to  destroy  the  enemy's  flotilla  by  a  fire-ship.  In 
the  spring  of  1807,  General  Wadsworth,  Mrs.  Long- 


38  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

fellow's  father,  having  removed  to  Hiram  in  order 
to  occupy  and  improve  a  large  tract  of  land  which 
he  had  bought,  Stephen  Longfellow  took  up  his 
residence  in  the  brick  house  which  General  Wads- 
worth  had  vacated,  and  made  it  henceforth  his 
home. 

In  1814  he  was  sent  to  the  Legislature  of  Massa 
chusetts,  and  while  engaged  in  this  service  he  was 
chosen  a  member  of  the  celebrated  Hartford  Con 
vention.  In  1816  he  was  made  a  presidential 
elector.  In  1822  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
18th  Congress.  At  the  close  of  his  congressional 
term  he  retired  from  political  life,  and  devoted  his 
remaining  years  to  his  profession.  In  1825,  when 
Lafayette  visited  Portland,  Mr.  Longfellow  was 
appointed  to  give  the  address  of  welcome.  The 
service  was  fittingly  performed.  In  his  reply  La 
fayette  made  this  graceful  allusion  to  Mr.  Long 
fellow  :  "  While  I  offer  to  the  people  of  Portland, 
and  to  you,  gentlemen,  my  respectful  thanks,  I 
am  happy  to  recognize  in  the  kind  organ  of  their 
kindness  to  me  the  member  of  Congress  who 
shared  in  the  flattering  invitation  which  has  been 
to  me  a  source  of  inexpressible  honor  and  delight." 
In  1828  Mr.  Longfellow  received  the  degree  of 
LL.  D.  from  Bowdoin  College,  of  which  he  was  a 
Trustee  from  1817  to  1836.  He  was  Recording 
Secretary  of  the  Maine  Historical  Society  from 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  39 

1828  to  1830,  and  in  1834  he  was  elected  Presi 
dent  of  the  Society.  He  died  August  3,  1849, 
aged  seventy-four  years.  In  his  "  Law,  Courts, 
and  Lawyers  of  Maine,"  Mr.  Willis  says  of  him, 
"  No  man  more  surely  gained  the  confidence  of  all 
who  approached  him,  or  held  it  firmer ;  and  those 
who  knew  him  best  loved  him  most.  In  the  man 
agement  of  his  causes,  he  went  with  zeal  and 
directness  of  purpose  to  every  point  which  could 
sustain  it ;  there  was  no  traveling  out  of  the  rec 
ord  with  him,  nor  a  wandering  away  from  the  line 
of  his  argument  after  figures  of  speech  or  fine 
rhetoric,  but  he  was  plain,  straightforward,  and 
effective  in  his  appeals  to  the  jury,  and  by  his 
frank  and  cordial  manner  won  them  to  his  cause." 

Such,  in  public  life,  was  the  father  of  Henry 
Wadsworth  Longfellow.  In  the  domestic  circle 
the  noble  traits  of  his  character  were  no  less  ap 
parent.  His  home  was  one  of  refinement  and  the 
purest  social  virtues ;  and  she  who  shared  its  direc 
tion  with  him  not  only  adorned  it  with  rare  wom 
anly  grace,  but  gave  to  it  many  an  added  charm. 

Here  the  poet  passed  his  earlier  years.  How 
well  he  remembers  the  Portland  of  those  years  he 
has  told  us  in  his  delightful  poem,  "My  Lost 
Youth :  "- 

I  remember  the  black  wharves  and  the  slips, 
And  the  sea-tides  tossing  free ; 


40  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

And  Spanish  sailors  with  bearded  lips, 

And  the  beauty  and  mystery  of  the  ships, 
And  the  magic  of  the  sea. 

And  the  voice  of  that  wayward  song 
Is  singing  and  saying  still : 
"A  boy's  will  is  the  wind's  will, 

And  the  thoughts  of  youth  are  long,  long  thoughts." 

I  remember  the  bulwarks  by  the  shore, 

And  the  fort  upon  the  hill ; 
The  sunrise  gun,  with  its  hollow  roar, 
The  drum-beat  repeated  o'er  and  o'er, 

And  the  bugle  wild  and  shrill. 
And  the  music  of  that  old  song 

Throbs  in  my  memory  still : 

"  A  boy's  will  is  the  wind's  will, 
And  the  thoughts  of  youth  are  long,  long  thoughts." 

I  remember  the  sea-fight  far  away, 

How  it  thundered  o'er  the  tide ! 

And  the  dead  captains,  as  they  lay 

In  their  graves,  o'er-looking  the  tranquil  bay, 
"Where  they  in  battle  died. 

And  the  sound  of  that  mournful  song 
Goes  through  me  with  a  thrill : 
"  A  boy's  will  is  the  wind's  will, 

And  the  thoughts  of  youth  are  long,  long  thoughts." 

I  can  see  the  breezy  dome  of  groves, 

The  shadows  of  Deering's  Woods  : 
And  the  friendships  old  and  the  early  loves 
Come  back  with  a  sabbath  sound,  as  of  doves 
In  quiet  neighborhoods. 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  41 

And  the  verse  of  that  sweet  old  song, 

It  flutters  and  murmurs  still : 

UA  boy's  will  is  the  wind's  will, 
And  the  thoughts  of  youth  are  long,  long  thoughts." 

I  remember  the  gleams  and  glooms  that  dart 

Across  the  school-boy's  brain  ; 
The  song  and  the  silence  in  the  heart, 
That  in  part  are  prophecies,  and  in  part 

Are  longings  wild  and  vain. 
And  the  voice  of  that  fitful  song 

Sings  on,  and  is  never  still : 

"  A  boy's  will  is  the  wind's  will, 
And  the  thoughts  of  youth  are  long,  long  thoughts." 

The  first  school  that  Mr.  Longfellow  attended 
was  kept  by  Marm  Fellows  in  a  small  brick  school- 
house  on  Spring  Street,  above  High,  and  just  be 
low  the  house  in  which  Dr.  Bacon  now  lives.  Later 
he  went  to  the  town  school  in  Love  Lane,  now 
Centre  Street,  where  Judge  Goddard's  house 
stands.  Here,  however,  he  remained  only  a  week 
or  two,  and  he  was  then  placed  in  the  private 
school  of  Nathaniel  H.  Carter,  which  was  kept  in 
a  little  one-story  wooden  house  on  the  west  side 
of  Preble  Street,  near  Congress.  Afterwards  he 
attended  the  Portland  Academy  under  the  same 
master,  and  also  under  the  mastership  of  Mr. 
Bezaleel  Cushman,  a  graduate  of  Dartmouth  Col 
lege,  who  took  charge  of  the  school  in  1815,  and 
continued  in  the  position  twenty-six  years.  One 


42  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

of  his  assistants,  while  Mr.  Longfellow  was  con 
nected  with  the  school,  was  Jacob  Abbott.  Under 
such  inspiring  teachers  his  progress  was  rapid, 
and  in  1821,  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  he  entered 
Bowdoin  College,  though,  for  the  most  part,  dur 
ing  the  first  year  of  his  college  course,  he  pursued 
his  studies  at  home. 

The  class  which  he  entered  was  a  brilliant  one. 
In  it  were  sons  of  some  of  the  choicest  families 
in  Northern  New  England;  and  among  them 
were  those  who  were  to  achieve  a  wide  reputation 
in  the  field  of  letters,  —  Nathaniel  Hawthorne, 
George  B.  Cheever,  John  S.  C.  Abbott,  —  and 
others  at  the  bar  and  in  political  life,  conspicuously 
the  lamented  Cilley,  and  our  honored  President, 
Hon.  J.  W.  Bradbury,  whose  absence  to-night  we 
all  so  greatly  regret.  One  of  his  classmates,  the 
Rev.  Daniel  Shepley,  D.  D.,  referring  to  Longfellow 
as  a  student,  says,  "He  gave  diligent  heed  to  all 
departments  of  study  in  the  prescribed  course,  and 
excelled  in  all,  while  his  enthusiasm  moved  in  the 
direction  it  has  taken  in  subsequent  life.  His 
themes,  felicitous  translations  of  Horace  and  occa 
sional  contributions  to  the  press,  drew  marked  at 
tention  to  him,  and  led  to  the  expectation 'that  his 
would  be  an  honorable  literary  career." 

When  he  entered  college,  Mr.  Longfellow  had 
already  occupied  the  poet's  corner  in  the  Portland 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  43 

newspapers.  His  first  published  poem  was  on 
Lovell's  Fight.  In  his  complete  poetical  works  as 
now  issued  are  several  poems,  which,  Mr.  Long 
fellow  tells  us,  were  written  for  the  most  part  dur 
ing  his  college  life,  and  all  of  them  before  he  was 
nineteen  years  of  age.  They  were  first  published 
in  "  The  United  States  Literary  Gazette,"  edited 
by  James  G.  Carter,  and  thence  found  their  way 
into  the  columns  of  the  daily  and  weekly  papers 
of  the  country. 

Mr.  Longfellow  graduated  second  in  a  class  of 
thirty- seven.  His  theme  Commencement  Day 
was  "  Native  Writers."  So  full  was  his  future  of 
promise  that  when,  shortly  after  he  graduated,  it 
was  proposed  to  establish  a  chair  of  Modern  Lan 
guages  in  Bowdoin  College,  he  was  elected  to  the 
professorship,  being  then  only  nineteen  years  of 
age.  But  he  was  not  asked  to  take  the  position 
before  he  had  qualified  himself  for  its  duties.  He 
accordingly  went  abroad,  and  the  next  three  years 
and  a  half  were  spent  in  the  study  of  the  more 
important  languages  of  Europe  on  their  native 
soil.  These  were  years  of  earnest,  faithful  toil, 
and  when  he  returned  to  Brunswick,  in  1829,  he 
brought  with  him  the  rich  treasures  he  had  made 
his  own  during  his  residence  in  France,  Spain,  It 
aly,  Germany,  Holland,  and  England.  His  reputa 
tion  as  an  instructor  was  soon  established.  Presi- 


44  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

dent  Hamlin,  of  Middlebury  College,  who  entered 
Bowdoin  in  1830,  says,  "  Longfellow  had  occu 
pied  the  chair  but  one  year.  Our  class  numbered 
fifty-two,  the  largest  Freshman  class  that  had, 
up  to  that  time,  entered  college,  and  many  of 
its  members  were  attracted  by  Longfellow's  rep 
utation." 

In  September,  1831,  Mr.  Longfellow  was  mar 
ried  to  Mary  S.  Potter,  daughter  of  Judge  Barrett 
Potter,  of  Portland.  His  first  published  poetical 
work,  which  appeared  in  1833,  was  a  translation 
of  the  "  Coplas  de  Jorge  Manrique,"  to  which  was 
prefixed  an  Introductory  Essay  on  the  Moral  and 
Devotional  Poetry  of  Spain.  In  the  same  year  he 
published  the  first  two  numbers  of  "  Outre-Mer," 
and  the  whole  work  appeared  two  years  later. 

During  his  residence  at  Brunswick,  Mr.  Long 
fellow  became  a  member  of  the  Maine  Historical 
Society,  a  fact  which  we  recall  to-night  with  es 
pecial  interest;  and  in  1834  he  held  the  office  of 
Librarian  and  Cabinet  Keeper. 

At  this  time,  Mr.  George  Ticknor,  the  learned 
professor  of  modern  languages  in  Harvard  Univer 
sity,  resigned,  and  the  publication  of  "  Outre- 
Mer  "  and  Mr.  Longfellow's  rapidly  growing  repu 
tation  as  a  poet  led  to  his  appointment  as  Mr. 
Ticknor's  successor.  Before  entering  upon  his 
professorship  at  Cambridge,  in  order  to  study  the 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  45 

languages  of  Northern  Europe,  he  again  visited 
the  Old  World.  The  summer  was  spent  in  Norway 
and  Sweden,  and  the  autumn  and  winter  in  Hol 
land  and  Germany.  But  his  studies  were  arrested 
by  the  sudden  death  of  his  wife,  at  Rotterdam, 
November  29,  1835,  and  in  the  shadow  of  this 
sorrow  he  was  compelled  to  complete  his  work 
abroad.  In  November,  1836,  he  returned  to  the 
United  States,  and,  after  a  visit  to  the  home  of 
his  childhood,  he  repaired  to  Cambridge,  and  en 
tered  upon  his  duties  as  "  Smith  Professor  of 
Modern  Literature." 

Early  in  his  Cambridge  life  Mr.  Longfellow 
called  one  day  at  the  Craigie  House,  which  for  a 
time  during  the  Revolution  was  Washington's 
headquarters,  and  at  a  later  date  the  residence 
of  Edward  Everett  and  Jared  Sparks.  "  I  lodge 
students  no  longer,"  said  Mrs.  Craigie,  in  answer 
to  the  inquiry  if  she  had  a  vacant  room  for  a 
lodger.  On  learning  that  Mr.  Longfellow  was  not 
a  student,  but  a  professor  in  the  University,  she 
led  the  way  to  the  room  in  the  southeast  corner 
on  the  second  floor,  once  General  Washington's 
chamber,  and  placed  it  at  his  disposal.  In  1843, 
on  the  death  of  Mrs.  Craigie,  Longfellow  bought 
the  house,  and  it  has  since  been  his  home.  In 
this  year  he  was  married  to  Frances  Elizabeth 
Appleton,  daughter  of  Hon.  Nathan  Appleton,  of 


46  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

Boston.  In  this  historic  dwelling  Mr.  Longfel 
low's  children,  two  sons  and  four  daughters,  were 
born  ;  and  here,  too,  occurred  the  sudden  and  sor 
rowful  death  of  his  wife,  an  affliction  most  keenly 
felt,  and  which  has  chastened  all  his  subsequent 
years. 

In  the  University,  as  one  of  his  pupils,  the  Kev. 
Edward  Everett  Hale,  tells  us,  "  his  regular  duty 
was  the  oversight  of  five  or  more  instructors  who 
were  teaching  French,  German,  Italian,  Spanish, 
Portuguese,  to  two  or  three  hundred  under-gradu- 
ates.  .  .  .  We  never  knew  when  he  might  look 
in  on  a  recitation  and  virtually  conduct  it.  We 
were  delighted  to  have  him  come.  Any  slipshod 
work  of  some  poor  wretch  from  France,  who  was 
tormented  by  wild-cat  Sophomores,  would  be  made 
straight  and  decorous  and  all  right.  We  all  knew 
he  was  a  poet,  and  were  proud  to  have  him  in  the 
college,  but  at  the  same  time  we  respected  him  as 
a  man  of  affairs." 

Indeed,  not  a  little  of  his  time  must  have  been 
given  to  literary  work.  His  study,  as  now,  was 
on  the  lower  floor,  under  the  southeast  chamber 
which  he  occupied  when  he  first  made  his  home 
in  the  Craigie  Mansion.  It  was  the  room  in  which 
Washington  transacted  the  business  of  his  office  as 
Commander-in-Chief,  a  fact  which  the  poet  him 
self  has  recorded  in  the  lines,  — 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  47 

"  Yes,  within  this  very  room 
Sat  he  in  those  hours  of  gloom, 

Weary  both  in  heart  and  head." 

Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  in  a  description  of  Mr. 
Longfellow's  study,  published  in  the  "  Christian 
Union  "  a  year  ago,  says,  "  The  table  is  piled  with 
pamphlets  and  papers  in  orderly  confusion ;  a 
high  desk  in  one  corner  suggests  a  practice  of 
standing  while  writing,  and  gives  a  hint  of  one 
secret  of  the  poet's  singularly  erect  form  at  an 
age  when  the  body  generally  begins  to  stoop  and 
the  shoulders  to  grow  round ;  an  orange-tree 
stands  in  one  window ;  near  it  a  bronze  stork 
keeps  watch  ;  by  the  side  of  the  open  fire  is  the 
children's  chair ;  on  the  table  is  Coleridge's  ink 
stand  ;  upon  the  walls  are  crayon  likenesses  of 
Emerson,  Hawthorne,  Felton,  and  Sumner;  and 
on  one  of  the  book-shelves,  which  fill  all  the  spare 
wall-space  and  occupy  even  one  of  the  windows, 
are,  rarest  treasure  of  all,  the  poet's  own  works  in 
their  original  manuscript,  carefully  preserved  in 
handsome  and  substantial  bindings."  Here,  amid 
these  pleasant  surroundings,  have  been  written  in 
successive  years  so  many  of  those  poems, 

"  Voices  and  melodies  from  beyond  the  gates," 
which  have  charmed  so  many  waiting  hearts  in 
many  lands. 

Mr.  Longfellow   retained   his   professorship    at 


48     HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

Cambridge  seventeen  years,  and  then  resigned,  in 
order  to  give  himself  wholly  to  literary  work.  In 
1859  he  received  from  Harvard  College  the  hon 
orary  degree  of  LL.  D.  ;  and  on  revisiting  Europe 
in  1868-69  he  received  the  degree  of  D.  C.  L.  at 
both  Cambridge  and  Oxford.  This  was  a  just  rec 
ognition  of  his  extended  fame,  an  expression  of 
the  high  honor  in  which  he  was  held  by  men  of 
letters  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

Throughout  his  long  career  as  a  poet  Mr.  Long 
fellow  has  not  been  conspicuous  upon  public  oc 
casions.  What  he  has  written  has  been  by  an 
impulse  from  within,  not  from  without.  His 
"Morituri  Salutamus,"  read  at  Bowdoin  College  in 
1875,  was  not  an  exception.  It  wras  the  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  his  college  class,  and  though  he 
was  asked  to  honor  the  day  with  his  verse,  these 
words  that  breathe  and  thoughts  that  burn  bore 
witness  to  the  pure  source  from  which  they  came. 
Of  those  who  were  present  on  that  memorable 
day  none  will  ever  forget  the  scene  in  the  church 
when  the  now  venerable  poet,  surrounded  by  his 
classmates,  saluted  the  well-known  places  of  his 
youth,  beloved  instructors,  of  whom  all  save  one 
had  passed  into  the  land  of  shadows,  the  students 
who  filled  the  seats  he  and  his  companions  had 
once  occupied,  and  finally  his  classmates, 

"  Against  whose  familiar  names  not  yet 
The  fatal  asterisk  of  death  is  set." 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  49 

One  of  these  classmates,  the  Rev.  David  Shep- 
ley,  D.  D.,  referring  to  the  poet,  says,  "How  did 
we  exult  in  his  pure  character  and  his  splendid 
reputation  !  With  what  delight  gaze  upon  his  in 
telligent  and  benignant  countenance  !  With  what 
moistening  eye  listen  to  his  words !  And  what 
limit  was  there  to  the  blessing  we  desired  for  him 
from  the  Infinite  Author  of  mind !  "  And  he 
adds,  "  Just  before  leaving  for  our  respective 
homes,  we  gathered  in  a  retired  college  room  for 
the  last  time,  talked  together  a  half -hour  as  of 
old,  agreed  to  exchange  photographs,  and  prayed 
together;  then  going  forth  and  standing  for  a 
moment  once  more  under  the  branches  of  the  old 
tree,  in  silence  we  took  each  other  by  the  hand 
and  separated,  knowing  well  that  Brunswick  will 
not  again  witness  a  gathering  of  the  class  of 
1825." 

But  the  poet  had  not  indulged  in  any  vain  re 
grets.  Manifestly  he  revealed  somewhat  his  own 
purpose  when,  in  closing  his  poem,  on  that  occa 
sion,  he  said,  — 

"  Something  remains  for  us  to  do  or  dare  ; 
Even  the  oldest  tree  some  fruit  may  bear. 

For  age  is  opportunity  no  less 
Than  youth  itself,  though  in  another  dress, 
And  as  the  evening  twilight  fades  away, 
The  sky  is  filled  with  stars,  invisible  by  day." 
4 


50  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

That  opportunity  Mr.  Longfellow  has  faithfully 
used,  and  long  may  it  be  before  we  shall  receive 
the  latest  fruit  of  his  noble  powers. 

The  poet  does  not  forget  the  place  of  his  birth. 
It  is  still  to  him 

"  The  beautiful  town 
That  is  seated  by  the  sea." 

And  hither  he  comes  each  season,  in  order  that 
again  he  may 

"  Go  up  and  down 
The  pleasant  streets," 

and  bring  back  his  lost  youth.  He  was  here  dur 
ing  the  past  summer.  Strange  forms,  doubtless, 
he  met,  but  he  himself  was  not  unknown.  Indeed, 
he  never  walks  these  streets  unrecognized.  The 
recent  action  of  the  City  Council  of  Portland  in 
tendering  him  a  public  reception  on  this  day,  with 
the  hospitalities  of  the  city,  was  but  the  expression 
of  a  hearty  desire  on  the  part  of  the  citizens  of 
Portland  to  do  honor  to  one  who  has  conferred  so 
much  honor  upon  this  "dear  old  town."  To  use 
his  own  words  in  the  "  Golden  Legend," 

"  Ah,  yes  !  we  all 
Love  him,  from  the  bottom  of  our  hearts ;  " 

and  we  send  him  a  birthday  greeting,  and  add, 

"  Be  that  sad  year,  O  poet,  very  far, 
That  proves  thee  mortal  by  the  little  star. 
Yet  since  thy  thoughts  live  daily  in  our  own, 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  51 

And  have  no  heart  to  weep  or  smile  alone, 
Since  they  are  rooted  in  our  souls,  and  so 
Will  live  forever,  whither  those  shall  go, 
Though  some  late  asterisk  may  mark  thy  name, 
It  never  will  be  set  against  thy  fame  ! 
For  the  world's  fervent  love  and  praise  of  thee 
Have  starred  it  first  with  immortality." 


GENERAL  PELEG  WADSWORTH,  AND  THE 

MATERNAL  ANCESTRY  OF  HENRY 

W.  LONGFELLOW. 

BY   HON.    WILLIAM    GOOLD,    WINDHAM. 

THE  pleasant  duty  assigned  to  me  for  this  occa 
sion  is  to  trace  the  origin  and  history  of  General 
Wadsworth,  —  the  maternal  grandfather  of  Henry 
Wads  worth  Longfellow,  —  who  had  the  military 
oversight  of  our  frontier  district  of  Maine,  imme 
diately  after  it  was  found  that  the  British  lodg 
ment  at  Bagaduce,  in  1779,  was  intended  to  be 
permanent. 

Peleg  Wadsworth  was  the  son  of  Deacon  Peleg 
Wadsworth,  of  Duxbury,  Massachusetts,  and  the 
fifth  in  descent  from  Christopher  Wadsworth,  who 
came  from  England,  and  settled  in  that  town  pre 
vious  to  1632,  and  whose  known  descendants  in 
the  United  States  are  now  numbered  by  thou 
sands. 

Peleg  Wadsworth,  Jr.,  was  born  at  Duxbury, 
May  6,  1748.  He  graduated  at  Harvard  College 
in  the  class  of  1769,  which  numbered  thirty-nine, 
and  included  several  honorable  names  which  added 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  53 

lustre  to  the  class,  one  of  which  was  Theophilus 
Parsons,  who  came  to  Falmouth  as  a  school-teacher 
in  1770,  and  studied  law  with  Theophilus  Brad 
bury  ;  but  the  Revolutionary  troubles  drove  him 
away,  and  he  became  Chief  Justice  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  Supreme  Court.  Another  member  of  the 
class  was  Alexander  Scammell,  also  of  Duxbury, 
who,  after  a  brilliant  military  career  in  the  Amer 
ican  army,  received  an  inhuman  wound,  after  be 
ing  taken  prisoner  at  the  siege  of  Yorktown,  of 
which  he  died  a  month  after.  Both  Wadsworth 
and  Scammell,  after  graduation,  taught  school  at 
Plymouth.  In  1772  Wadsworth  married  Elizabeth 
Bartlett  of  that  town.  Their  children,  through 
their  mother  and  grandmother  Wadsworth,  who 
was  Lusanna  Sampson,  inherited  the  blood  of  five 
of  the  Mayflower  pilgrims,  including  Elder  Brew- 
ster  and  Captain  John  Alden. 

Immediately  after  the  outrage  at  Lexington, 
Peleg  Wadsworth  raised  in  the  old  colony  a  com 
pany  of  minute-men,  of  which  the  Continental 
Congress  commissioned  him  captain  in  September, 
1775.  He  was  engineer  under  General  Thomas 
in  laying  out  the  defenses  of  Roxbury  in  1776. 
He  was  in  Colonel  Cotton's  regiment,  which  formed 
a  part  of  a  detachment  which  was  ordered  to  throw 
up  intrenchments  on  Dorchester  Heights,  and  was 
appointed  aid  to  General  Ward,  when  the  heights 


54  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

were  occupied  in  March.  These  works  compelled 
Howe's  fleet  to  leave  Boston  in  haste.  In  1778 
Wadsworth  was  appointed  Adjutant-General  of  his 
State. 

In  1779  the  British  naval  and  army  officers  at 
Halifax  became  sensible  that  they  were  suffering 
from  American  privateers,  which  frequented  the 
Penobscot  waters,  owing  to  their  perfect  knowl 
edge  of  the  numerous  coves  and  harbors,  which 
they  could  run  into  at  any  time  to  avoid  the  Brit 
ish  cruisers. 

The  Admiral  in  command  foresaw  the  advantage 
that  would  be  gained  by  establishing  a  naval  and 
military  post  in  this  quarter  for  a  harbor  of  refuge 
for  ships  and  fugitive  loyalists,  and  to  command 
the  near  coast  and  harbors,  whence  they  could  ob 
tain  a  supply  of  some  kinds  of  ship  timber  for  the 
royal  dockyard  at  Halifax.  This  was  the  year 
after  the  French  King  had  assumed  our  quarrel 
with  the  mother  country,  and  had  sent  a  large  fleet 
and  army  to  our  assistance,  which  gave  the  colo 
nies  confidence,  and  made  them  more  aggressive. 

In  June,  1779,  it  was  decided  at  Halifax  to  send 
General  McLane  with  a  fleet  to  occupy  Bagaduce, 
as  the  harbor  best  situated  for  their  purpose.  He 
arrived  on  the  12th  of  June  with  900  troops  and 
eight  or  nine  vessels,  all  less  than  a  frigate,  under 
the  command  of  Captain  Henry  Mo  watt,  who  had 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  55 

become  detestable  to  all  Americans  by  his  cruel 
burning  of  old  Falmouth,  four  years  previous.  The 
people  of  Maine  appealed  to  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts  for  protection,  and  to  have  the  in 
vaders  driven  off  by  an  immediate  expedition,  be 
fore  they  could  have  time  to  complete  their  works 
of  defense.  The  Massachusetts  Board  of  War 
were  instructed  by  the  Legislature  to  collect  a 
fleet,  state  and  national,  and  if  necessary  to  im 
press  any  private  armed  vessels  in  the  harbors  of 
the  State  into  their  service,  under  the  promise  of 
fair  compensation  for  all  losses  and  detention.  The 
Executive  Department  of  the  Province  was  then 
composed  of  the  Council ;  there  was  no  State 
Governor  until  the  next  year.  The  Council  or 
dered  Brigadier-Generals  Thompson,  of  Cumber 
land,  and  Gushing,  of  Lincoln,  to  detach  severally 
GOO  men  from  each  of  their  brigades,  and  form 
them  into  two  regiments.  General  Frost,  of  York, 
was  directed  to  detail  300  men  from  his  brigade 
for  a  reinforcement,  if  needed. 

The  fleet  consisted  of  nineteen  armed  vessels, 
carrying  344  guns,  and  convoying  twenty -four 
transports.  The  flag-ship  was  the  new  Continental 
frigate  Warren.  Of  the  others,  nine  were  ships, 
six  brigs,  and  three  sloops.  The  command  of  the 
fleet  was  intrusted  to  Kichard  Saltonstall,  of  Con 
necticut,  an  officer  of  some  naval  experience.  One 


56     HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

hundred  Massachusetts  artillerists  were  embarked, 
at  Boston  under  their  former  commander,  Lieu 
tenant-Colonel  Paul  Revere,  who  carried  the  news 
to  Hancock  and  Adams  at  Lexington  that  the 
British  troops  were  on  the  road  from  Boston,  in 
1775.  The  command  of  the  land  forces  was  given 
to  Solomon  Lovell,  of  Weymouth,  Mass.,  the  brig 
adier-general  of  the  militia  of  Suffolk,  which  then 
included  Norfolk  County.  He  was  a  man  of  cour 
age  but  no  war  experience.  Peleg  Wadsworth, 
then  Adjutant-General  of  Massachusetts,  was  the 
second  in  command.  He  had  seen  some  service 
on  Dorchester  Heights  during  the  siege  of  Boston 
and  in  other  places.  The  ordnance  was  intrusted 
to  the  command  of  Colonel  Revere. 

The  Cumberland  County  regiment  was  under 
the  command  of  Colonel  Mitchell,  of  North  Yar 
mouth.  The  expedition  was  popular,  and  the  peo 
ple  engaged  in  it  with  alacrity  and  zeal.  Falmouth 
and  Cape  Elizabeth  contributed  a  company  each, 
consisting  of  volunteers  from  the  most  respectable 
families. 

Under  date  June  20th,  Parson  Smith  of  Fal 
mouth  records  :  "  People  are  everywhere  in  this 
State  spiritedly  appearing  in  the  intended  expedi 
tion  to  Penobscot  in  pursuit  of  the  British  fleet 
and  army  there."  This  was  a  state  expedition, 
for  which  Massachusetts  advanced  £50,000. 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  57 

When  the  fleet  was  ready  to  sail  from  Towns- 
hend,  now  Boothbay,  the  place  of  rendezvous, 
General  Lo veil's  land  forces  numbered  less  than 
1,000  men,  who  had  been  paraded  together  only 
once,  then  at  Boothbay.  They  were  raw  militia, 
who  had  seen  no  former  service,  except,  perhaps, 
some  individuals  who  had  been  in  the  Continental 
Army  for  a  short  time.  It  was  a  spirited  body  of 
men.  Their  fathers  had  been  at  the  siege  of  Lou- 
isburg,  thirty  years  before.  In  one  month  from 
the  commencement  to  organize  the  expedition,  it 
made  its  appearance  in  Penobscot  Bay. 

The  British  commander  heard  of  the  American 
fleet  four  days  before  its  arrival,  and  worked  night 
and  day  to  render  his  fortification  defensible,  yet 
it  was  far  from  being  completed.  He  at  once 
dispatched  a  vessel  to  Halifax,  asking  for  assist 
ance.  On  the  28th  of  July,  after  waiting  two  days 
for  a  calm,  our  vessels  were  drawn  up  in  line  of 
battle,  and  200  militiamen  and  200  marines  were 
landed.  The  best  landing-places  were  exposed  to 
Mowatt's  guns,  and  no  landing  could  be  effected 
except  on  the  western  side,  which  was  a  precipice 
150  feet  high  and  very  steep.  This  was  guarded 
by  a  line  of  the  enemy  posted  on  the  summit,  who 
opened  a  brisk  fire  as  soon  as  the  boats  came 
within  gunshot,  but  the  shot  from  the  vessels  went 
over  their  heads.  As  soon  as  the  men  landed  the 


58  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

boats  returned  to  the  fleet,  cutting  off  all  means  of 
retreat.  No  force  could  reach  the  summit  in  the 
face  of  such  a  fire  of  musketry,  so  the  American 
troops  were  divided  into  three  parties.  One 
sought  a  practicable  ascent  at  the  right,  one  at 
the  left,  and  the  centre  kept  up  a  brisk  fire  to 
attract  the  attention  of  the  enemy  on  the  heights. 
Both  the  right  and  left  parties  gained  the  summit, 
followed  by  the  centre  in  the  face  of  a  galling  fire, 
which  they  were  powerless  to  return.  Captain 
Warren's  company  of  volunteers  from  Falmouth 
was  the  first  to  form  on  the  heights,  when  all 
closed  on  the  enemy,  who,  after  a  sharp  skirmish, 
made  their  escape,  leaving  thirty  men  killed  and 
wounded.  Of  the  attacking  party  of  400,  one 
hundred  were  killed  or  wounded.  The  engage 
ment  was  short,  but  great  pluck  and  courage  were 
shown  by  the  Americans.  It  has  been  said  that 
no  more  brilliant  exploit  than  this  was  accom 
plished  by  our  forces  during  the  war,  but  this  is 
the  only  bright  spot  in  the  record  of  the  expedi 
tion.  After  the  retreat  of  the  enemy,  some  slight 
intrenchments  were  thrown  up  by  the  sadly  weak 
ened  little  detachment,  within  700  yards  of  the 
enemy's  main  works.  These  intrenchments  were 
held  by  our  men,  and  thus  was  made  a  good  be 
ginning. 

The  same  morning  a  council  of  war  was  called 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  59 

of  the  land  and  naval  officers.  The  former  were 
for  summoning  the  garrison  to  surrender,  but  the 
Commodore  and  the  most  of  his  officers  were  op 
posed  to  the  measure.  It  was  next  proposed  to 
storm  the  fort,  but  the  Commodore  refused  to  land 
any  more  of  his  marines,  as  those  at  the  first  land 
ing  suffered  severely.  The  land  force  alone  was 
deemed  insufficient  for  a  successful  attack  on  the 
works,  and  a  whale-boat  express  was  dispatched 
to  Boston  for  a  reinforcement.  General  Lovell 
now  commenced  a  regular  investment  of  the  works 
by  zigzag  trenches  for  Kevere's  insufficient  can 
non,  and  approached  to  musket-shot  distance  of 
the  fort,  so  that  not  one  of  the  garrison  dared  to 
show  his  head  above  the  embankments. 

It  was  afterwards  ascertained  that  if  a  surrender 
had  been  demanded  when  first  proposed  the  com 
manding  general  was  prepared  to  capitulate,  so 
imperfect  were  his  defenses.  Commodore  Salton- 
stall  was  self-willed,  and  disagreed  with  Generals 
Lovell  and  Wadsworth.  During  the  two  weeks' 
delay  the  British  strengthened  their  defenses,  and 
inclosed  their  works  with  a  chevaux-de-frise  and 
an  abattis  outside  of  all,  which  rendered  the  storm 
ing  project  impracticable,  if  the  expected  rein 
forcement  had  arrived.  The  American  Commo 
dore  kept  up  a  daily  cannonade  with  a  show  of  an 
attempt  to  enter  the  harbor,  but  it  was  only  a 


60  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

show.  A  deserter  from  the  Americans  informed 
the  British  commander  of  an  intended  attack  the 
next  day,  which  prevented  any  success. 

On  the  13th  of  August  a  look-out  vessel  brought 
General  Lovell  news  that  a  British  squadron  of 
seven  sails  was  entering  Penobscot  Bay,  in  answer 
to  General  McLane's  application  to  Halifax  on  the 
first  discovery  of  the  American  fleet.  A  retreat 
was  immediately  ordered  by  General  Lovell,  and 
conducted  by  General  Wadsworth  in  the  night 
with  so  much  skill  that  the  whole  of  the  troops 
were  on  board  the  transports,  undiscovered  by  the 
enemy.  The  British  squadron,  consisting  of  one 
74-gun  ship,  one  frigate,  and  five  smaller  vessels, 
all  under  the  command  of  Sir  John  Collier,  with 
1,500  troops  on  board,  entered  the  harbor  the  next 
morning.  Saltonstall  kept  his  position  until  the 
transports  retreated  up  the  river,  when  a  broad 
side  from  Collier's  ship  caused  a  disorderly  flight, 
and  a  general  chase  and  indiscriminate  destruc 
tion  of  the  American  fleet.  Several  vessels  were 
blown  up  by  their  own  crews  to  prevent  their 
falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

The  troops  and  crews  of  the  vessels  left  them 
for  the  woods.  Most  of  the  officers  and  men  of 
the  fleet  and  army  made  their  way  through  the 
woods,  guided  by  the  Penobscot  Indians,  who  were 
friendly  to  the  provinces  through  the  war  for  in- 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  61 

dependence.  These  straggling  parties  suffered 
every  privation  before  reaching  the  settlements, 
subsisting  on  such  game  and  fish  as  they  were  able 
to  obtain.  A  large  number  were  piloted  by  the 
Indians  to  Fort  Halifax,  where  they  were  recruited, 
and  returned  home  by  the  Kennebec. 

A  court  of  inquiry  as  to  the  cause  of  the  failure 
of  the  expedition  gave  as  their  opinion  "  That  the 
principal  reason  of  the  failure  of  the  expedition 
was  the  want  of  the  proper  spirit  on  the  part  of 
the  Commodore.  That  the  destruction  of  the  fleet 
was  occasioned  essentially  because  of  his  not  ex 
erting  himself  at  all  in  the  time  of  the  retreat,  by 
opposing  the  enemy's  foremost  ships  in  pursuit." 
"  That  General  Lovell,  throughout  the  expedition 
and  retreat,  acted  with  proper  courage  and  spirit ; 
and  had  he  been  furnished  with  all  the  men  or 
dered  for  the  service,  or  been  properly  supported 
by  the  Commodore,  he  would  probably  have  re 
duced  the  enemy."  The  court  spoke  in  the 
highest  terms  of  General  Wadsworth.  Upon  this 
report  the  General  Court  adjudged  "That  Commo 
dore  Saltonstall  be  incompetent  ever  after  to  hold 
a  commission  in  the  service  of  the  State,  and  that 
Generals  Lovell  and  Wadsworth  be  honorably  ac 
quitted." 

In  answer  to  General  Lovell's  appeal  for  assist 
ance  by  the  whale-boat  express  to  Boston,  a  regi- 


62  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

ment  under  Colonel  Henry  Jackson  proceeded  to 
Falmouth  on  their  way  to  the  Penobscot,  where 
they  heard  of  the  disaster  of  the  expedition. 

When  I  was  a  boy,  sixty  years  ago,  many  of  the 
men  of  Cumberland  County  who  had  been  in  the 
Bagaduce  expedition  were  then  living;  some  of 
them  were  my  own  relatives.  I  have  often  heard 
angry  discussions  between  those  of  the  land  and 
those  of  the  naval  service.  The  landsmen  always 
assumed  the  aggressive,  and  had  the  best  of  the 
argument.  It  was  the  opinion  of  both  that  if 
General  Wadsworth  had  been  in  chief  command 
on  shore  the  gallant  detachments  which  first 
gained  the  heights  could  not  have  been  restrained 
until  they  had  crossed  bayonets  with  the  garrison 
of  the  half -built  fortress ;  and  that  was  the  time 
to  have  carried  the  works. 

After  the  failure  of  the  Bagaduce  expedition  the 
British  pursued  a  system  of  outrageous  plundering 
on  the  shores  of  Penobscot  Bay  and  the  neighbor 
ing  coast,  in  which  they  were  piloted  and  assisted 
by  the  numerous  Tories  who  had  gathered  at  Bag 
aduce  and  in  the  vicinity.  To  protect  the  people 
from  this  plundering,  the  Continental  Congress, 
in  1780,  ordered  600  men  to  be  detached  from  the 
three  eastern  brigades  of  the  State,  for  eight 
months'  service.  Every  soldier  was  ordered  to 
march  well  equipped,  within  twenty-four  hours 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  63 

after  lie  was  detached,   or   pay  a   fine    of    sixty 
pounds  currency,  which  was  to  be  applied  to  pro 
cure  a  substitute.      The  command  of    the  whole 
eastern  department,  between  the  Piscataqua  and 
St.  Croix,  was  given  to  General  Wadsworth,  with 
power  to  raise  more  troops  if  they  were  needed. 
He  was  also  empowered  to  declare  and  execute 
martial  law   over    territory    ten   miles   in    width 
upon  the  coast  east  of  the  Kennebec,  according 
to  the  rules  of  the  American  army.     His  head 
quarters  were  established  at  Thomaston.     For  the 
purpose    of   protecting    his   friends,   the    General 
found  it  necessary  to  draw  a  line  of  demarkation 
between  them  and  their  foes.     He  issued  a  proc 
lamation    prohibiting    any    intercourse    with    the 
enemy.     This  paper,  of  which   I  have   a  copy,  is 
dated  at  Thomaston,  18th  of  April,  1780,  and  de 
clares  the  penalty  of  military  execution  for  any 
infringement  of  it.     The  people  of  the  islands  east 
of  Penobscot  to  Union  River,  "  from  their  exposed 
situation,"   were   ordered    to    hold   themselves  as 
neutrals.     All  persons  joining  the  enemy  were  to 
be  treated  as  deserters  from  the  American  army. 

This  proclamation  did  not  have  the  desired 
effect.  The  most  bitter  of  the  Tories  supposed 
that  they  would  be  protected  by  General  Campbell, 
who  was  now  in  command;  but  he  disapproved  of 
their  plundering.  Captain  Mowatt,  of  detestable 


64  HENRY   WADS  WORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

memory,  who  was  in  command  of  the  British 
squadron,  was  of  a  different  character,  and  encour 
aged  their  depredations,  when  they  became  very 
aggressive.  A  stanch  friend  of  the  American 
cause  at  Broad  Bay,  named  Soule,  was  shot  in  his 
bed,  and  his  wife  was  wounded.  This  drew  from 
General  Wadsworth  another  proclamation,  de 
nouncing  death  to  any  one  convicted  of  secreting 
or  giving  aid  to  the  enemy.  Soon  after  a  man 
named  Baum  was  detected  in  secreting  and  aiding 
Tories  to  reach  Castine.  He  was  tried  by  court- 
martial,  found  guilty  of  treason,  and  General 
Wadsworth  ordered  his  execution  by  hanging  the 
next  morning,  which  was  carried  into  effect. 
This  effectually  checked  the  intercourse  with  Bag- 
aduce.  A  daughter  of  General  Wadsworth,  in 
writing  of  the  circumstance  to  a  son-in-law  in 
1834,  said,  "  My  mother  has  told  me  that  my 
father  was  greatly  distressed  at  being  obliged  to 
execute  the  penalty  of  the  law."  General  Wads- 
worth's  wife  was  with  him  at  the  time. 

After  the  term  of  service  of  the  600  troops  had 
expired,  General  Wadsworth  was  left  with  only 
six  soldiers  as  a  guard  at  his  house,  it  being  his 
intention  also  to  leave  within  a  week  or  two. 
His  family  consisted  of  his  wife  and  son  of  five 
years,  and  Miss  Fenno,  of  Boston,  a  particular 
friend  of  Mrs.  Wadsworth. 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  65 

Made  acquainted  with  his  defenseless  condition 
by  spies,  General  Campbell,  at  Bagaduce,  dis 
patched  a  party  of  twenty-five  men  under  Lieu 
tenant  Stockton  to  take  him  prisoner.  They  left 
their  vessel  four  miles  off,  and  marched  to  his  resi 
dence,  arriving  at  about  midnight,  February  18, 
1781.  The  General  had  plenty  of  fire-arms  in  his 
sleeping-room,  and  when  his  house  was  entered 
by  the  enemy  he  made  a  determined  defense,  un 
til  he  was  shot  in  the  arm,  when  he  surrendered, 
and  wras  hurried  off  to  the  vessel.  When  he  be 
came  weak  from  the  loss  of  blood,  he  was  set  on  a 
horse  for  the  march.  He  suffered  much  from  cold 
and  pain  from  his  wound.  He  was  taken  across 
the  bay  to  Castine,  and  imprisoned  in  Fort  George 
for  two  weeks.  He  knew  nothing  of  the  fate  of 
the  members  of  his  family  who  had  been  exposed 
to  the  firing.  At  the  request  of  General  Wads- 
worth,  General  Campbell  sent  a  lieutenant  with  a 
boat's  crew  to  Camden  across  the  bay,  with  letters 
to  his  family  and  to  the  Governor  of  the  State, 
which  were  inspected  previous  to  sealing.  Fi 
nally,  a  letter  was  received  from  Mrs.  Wadsworth, 
containing  an  assurance  that  they  were  unharmed. 
General  Campbell  treated  his  prisoner  very  po 
litely,  inviting  him  to  eat  at  his  own  table,  under 
guard  of  an  orderly  sergeant,  but  refused  him  a 
parole  or  exchange.  In  the  spring,  four  months 

5 


66  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

after  his  seizure,  Mrs.  Wadsworth  and  Miss  Fenno, 
with  a  passport  from  General  Campbell,  arrived  at 
Bagaduce,  and  were  politely  entertained  at  the 
fort  for  ten  days.  In  the  mean  time  orders  had 
arrived  from  the  commanding  general  at  New 
York,  in  answer  to  a  communication  from  Gen 
eral  Campbell.  Their  purport  was  learned  from  a 
hint  conveyed  to  Miss  Fenno  by  an  officer,  that 
the  General  was  not  to  be  exchanged,  but  would 
be  sent  to  some  English  prison.  When  Miss 
Fenno  left  she  gave  the  General  all  the  informa 
tion  she  dared  to  ;  she  said,  "  General  Wadsworth, 
take  care  of  yourself."  This  the  General  inter 
preted  to  mean  that  he  was  to  be  conveyed  to 
England,  and  he  determined  to  make  his  escape 
from  the  fortress,  if  possible.  Soon  after  a  vessel 
arrived  from  Boston  with  a  flag  of  truce  from  the 
Governor  and  Council,  asking  for  an  exchange  for 
the  General  and  bringing  a  sum  of  money  for  his 
use  ;  but  the  request  was  refused. 

Major  Burton,  a  resident  of  St.  George's  Kiver, 
who  had  served  the  previous  summer  under  Gen 
eral  Wadsworth,  was  a  prisoner  in  the  same  room 
with  him.  After  a  long  preparation,  and  by  ob 
taining  a  gimlet  from  the  fort  barber,  they  made 
their  escape  on  the  night  of  the  18th  of  June, 
passing  through  an  opening  previously  and  labori 
ously  made  in  the  board  ceiling  with  the  gimlet, 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  67 

the  marks  of  which  were  filled  with  bread.  They 
adroitly  evaded  the  sentinels,  but  were  separated 
in  the  darkness,  both,  however,  getting  off  safely. 
They  kept  much  in  the  shoal  water  of  the  shores, 
to  prevent  being  tracked  by  the  blood-hounds 
which  were  kept  at  the  fort  for  that  purpose. 
The  two  friends  came  accidentally  together  on  the 
next  day.  Major  Burton  dropped  a  glove  in  the 
darkness,  which  pointed  out  to  their  pursuers  the 
route  they  had  taken  on  leaving  the  fort.  They, 
however,  found  a  canoe,  got  across  the  river,  and 
pursued  their  course  through  the  woods  by  a 
pocket  compass  to  the  settlements,  and  wrere  as 
sisted  to  Thomaston,  after  much  suffering.  On 
arriving  at  his  former  residence,  General  Wads- 
worth  found  that  his  family  had  left  for  Boston, 
whither  he  followed  them,  after  a  brief  stop  at 
Falmouth,  where  he  finally  fixed  his  residence. 

In  1797  President  Dwight,  of  Yale  College, 
who  had  been  a  chaplain  in  the  American  army, 
visited  Portland,  and  was  the  guest  of  General 
Wadsworth,  from  whom  he  says  he  "  received  an 
uninterrupted  succession  of  civilities."  He  also 
received  from  the  General,  and  wrote  out,  a  mi 
nute  and  thrilling  account  of  his  capture,  impris 
onment,  and  escape,  which  cover  twenty-five 
printed  pages.  General  Wadsworth,  at  the  time 
of  its  publication,  vouched  for  its  accuracy. 


68  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

The  record  of  the  births  of  his  eleven  children 
shows  the  places  where  the  General  lived  at  the 
time.  The  oldest  was  born  at  Kingston,  Mass.,  in 
1774,  and  died  the  next  year  at  Dorchester. 
Charles  Lee  was  born  at  Plymouth,  January,  1776, 
and  died  at  Hiram,  September  29,  1848.  Zilpah 
was  born  at  Duxbury,  January  6,  1778,  died  in 
Portland,  March  12,  1851.  Elizabeth,  born  in 
Boston,  September  21,  1779,  died  in  Portland, 
August  1,  1802.  John,  born  at  Plymouth,  Sep 
tember  1,  1781,  graduated  at  Harvard  College  in 
1800,  died  at  Hiram,  January  22,  1860.  Lucia, 
born  at  Plymouth,  June  12,  1783,  died  in  Port 
land,  October  17,  1864.  Henry,  born  at  Fal- 
mouth,  Me.,  June  21,  1785,  died  at  Tripoli, 
September  4,  1804.  George,  born  in  Portland, 
January  6,  1788,  died  in  Philadelphia,  April  8, 
1816.  Alexander  Scammell,  born  in  Portland, 
May  7,  1790,  died  at  Washington,  April  5,  1851. 
Samuel  Bartlett,  born  in  Portland,  September  1, 
1791,  died  at  Eastport,  October  2,  1874.  Peleg, 
born  in  Portland,  October  10, 1793,  died  at  Hiram, 
January  17,  1875. 

The  following  letter,  with  a  copy  of  the  State 
deed  of  the  tract  of  land  in  Hiram,  was  received 
at  the  last  moment  previous  to  the  meeting,  too 
late  to  correct  dates  or  facts  :  — 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  69 

[Copy  of  a  letter  written  by  General  Peleg  Wadswortk  to  Alden 
Bradford,  Esq.] 

HIRAM,  17th  July,  1827. 

DEAR  SIR:  Observing  your  advertisement  in  the 
Columbian  Sentinel  of  the  llth  inst,  requesting  surviv 
ing  officers  of  the  Revolutionary  Army  of  the  State  of 
Mass,  and  of  Me.  to  forward  to  you  their  rank  in  1780, 
&c,  in  compliance,  I  have  sketched  the  following  — 
though  I  do  not  know  whether  I  come  within  your 
request,  as  I  was  not  of  the  line  of  the  Continental 
Army  after  the  first  two  years  of  the  War.  I  was  a 
Captain  in  Cotton's  and  Bailey's  Regiments,  the  two 
first  years,  and  was  Aid  De  Camp  to  Gen'l  Ward  as 
long  as  he  continued  in  the  service,  which  I  believe 
was  till  the  year  1777,  with  the  rank  of  major. 

Afterwards,  I  was  in  the  Continental  service  (as  it 
was  called)  under  the  appointment  of  the  Legislature  of 
Mass.  —  was  second  in  command  with  Gen.  Lovell  on 
the  in-glorious  Penobscot  Expedition  in  1778,  with  the 
rank  of  Brigadier  Gen'l ;  the  next  year,  viz.,  1779,  had 
the  command  of  the  whole  coast  of  the  District  of  Maine, 
by  the  same  authority,  at  the  close  of  which,  or  rather 
the  beginning  of  1780, 1  was  taken  prisoner  (as  you  may 
see  by  looking  at  210th  page  of  Rev.  Charles  A.  Good- 
rich's  History  of  United  States).  After  that  I  was  not 
in  the  military  service.  I  was  82  years  old  when  ap 
pointed  a  Brigadier  Gen'l  (by  the  Gov.  and  Council) 
and  lived  in  Boston  at  that  time,  moved  to  Portland  in 
1784,  and  to  Hiram  in  1810,  where  I  now  reside,  and  am 
in  my  80th  year. 

I  know  of  no  widows  of  the  description  you  mention, 


70  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

nor  do  I  know  for  what  purpose  you  have  requested  the 
above,  but  as  the  motive  is,  no  doubt,  benevolent,  I 
cheerfully  subscribe  myself  your  friend  and  serv't, 

PELEG  WADSWORTH. 
ALDEN  BRADFORD,  ESQ. 

The  birth  of  a  son  there  in  September,  1781, 
shows  that  General  Wadsworth  took  his  family  to 
Plymouth  on  leaving  his  command  in  Maine.  A 
daughter  was  also  born  there,  in  1783.  It  is 
known  that  he  came  to  Falmouth  in  1784.  In 
December  of  that  year  he  purchased  of  John 
Ingersoll,  of  Boston,  shipwright,  for  100  pounds 
lawful  money,  the  lot  of  land  in  Falmouth  on 
which  he  erected  his  buildings  for  a  home.  In 
the  deed  he  is  named  of  that  town.  The  purchase 
is  described  as  "  lying  northeast  of  a  lot  now  pos 
sessed  by  Captain  Arthur  McLellan,  being  four 
rods  in  front  and  running  towards  Back  Cove  and 
containing  one  and  one  half  acres.  Being  part  of 
three  acres  originally  granted  to  Daniel  Ingersoll 
as  appears  on  the  records  of  the  town  of  Falmouth, 
Book  No.  1,  page  46."  This  is  the  Congress  Street 
lot  on  which  he  erected  his  house  and  store. 

Dr.  Deane,  in  his  diary,  says  his  store  and  barn 
were  built  in  1784.  While  he  was  building  his 
house,  he,  with  his  family,  lived  in  a  building  at 
the  south  corner  of  Franklin  and  Congress  streets, 
belonging  to  Captain  Jonathan  Paine.  It  was  built 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  71 

for  a  barn,  but  probably  had  been  occupied  before 
as  a  dwelling,  as  it  escaped  Mowatt's  burning,  ten 
years  before,  which  compelled  well-to-do  people  to 
occupy  very  humble  quarters.  This  building  was 
long  afterwards  finished  for  a  dwelling-house  by 
Elijah  Adams,  and  burned  in  1866.  In  the  spring 
of  1785  General  Wadsworth  made  preparation  to 
erect  his  house.  There  had  then  been  no  attempt 
in  the  town  to  construct  all  the  walls  of  a  building 
of  brick ;  indeed,  there  had  been  no  suitable  brick 
for  walls  made  here.  At  that  time  brick  buildings 
were  expected  to  have  a  projecting  base  of  several 
courses,  —  the  top  one  to  be  of  brick  fashioned 
for  the  purpose,  the  outer  end  of  which  formed  a 
regular  moulding  when  laid  on  edge  and  endwise, 
and  the  walls  receded  several  inches  to  the  per 
pendicular  face.  Several  houses  besides  General 
"Wadsworth's  were  commenced  in  this  way.  In 
the  spring  of  1785  the  General  obtained  brick  for 
his  house  in  Philadelphia,  including  those  for  the 
base  and  a  belt  above  the  first  story.  John  Nich 
ols  was  the  master  mason. 

Although  the  house  was  to  be  only  two  stories, 
the  walls  were  built  sixteen  inches  thick,  strong 
enough  for  a  church  tower.  This  swallowed  up 
the  bricks  more  rapidly  than  had  been  expected. 
At  the  close  of  the  season  they  were  all  laid,  and 
the  walls  were  not  completed.  There  was  no 


72  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

alternative  but  to  secure  the  masonry  from  the 
weather,  and  wait  for  another  spring.  When  that 
came  more  bricks  were  imported,  and  "  the  house 
that  Jack  [Nichols]  built"  was  finished.  It  is  yet 
standing,  and  shows  good  work  in  the  artistic  win 
dow-caps  of  brick.  There  was  no  other  brick 
house  built  in  town  until  three  years  after.  The 
Wadsworth  House,  when  originally  finished,  had 
a  high  pitched  roof  of  two  equal  sides,  and  four 
chimneys.  The  store  adjoined  the  house  at  the 
southeast,  with  an  entrance  door  from  the  house, 
and  was  of  two  stories.  Here  the  General  sold  all 
kinds  of  goods  needed  in  the  town  and  country 
trade.  His  name  appears  in  the  records  with 
some  forty  others  as  licensed  "  retailers  "  of  the 
town  in  1785.  What  time  he  gave  up  the  store 
is  uncertain.  The  late  Edward  Howe,  who  occu 
pied  it  in  1805,  described  it  to  me. 

General  Wadsworth  was  elected  to  the  Massachu 
setts  Senate  in  1792,  and  the  same  year  he  was 
elected  Representative  to  Congress,  being  the  first 
from  the  Cumberland  district,  and  was  continuously 
elected  to  that  office  until  1806,  when  he  declined 
a  reelection.  In  1798  the  citizens  of  Portland 
gave  him  a  public  dinner  in  approbation  of  his 
official  conduct.  Captain  William  Merrill  related  to 
me  the  circumstance  that  when  the  seat  of  govern 
ment  was  removed  from  Philadelphia  to  Washing- 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  73 

ton,  in  1801,  General  Wadsworth  took  passage  in 
his  vessel  for  Baltimore,  that  being  the  most  speedy 
and  comfortable  way  to  reach  Washington. 

In  1790  General  Wadsworth  purchased  from 
the  State  of  Massachusetts  7,500  acres  of  wild  land, 
in  the  township  which  is  now  Hiram,  on  the  Saco 
Eiver.  The  price  paid  was  twelve  and  a  half  cents 
per  acre.  He  immediately  commenced  to  clear  a 
farm  on  a  large  scale,  as  is  shown  by  a  paragraph 
in  the  "Eastern  Herald"  of  September  10,  1792, 
published  in  Portland.  It  says,  "  General  Wads- 
worth  thinks  he  has  raised  more  than  1,000  bushels 
of  corn  this  season  on  burnt  land,  that  is  now  out 
of  danger  of  the  frost,  at  a  place  called  Great  Ossi- 
pee,  about  thirty-six  miles  from  this  town.  This 
is  but  the  third  year  of  his  improvements."  In 
1790  the  township  contained  a  population  of  186. 

In  1795  General  Wadsworth  settled  his  son 
Charles  Lee  on  his  tract,  and  in  1800  he  began 
to  prepare  to  remove  his  own  family  there.  In 
that  year  he  commenced  to  build  on  his  land- 
purchase  a  large  house,  which  is  yet  standing,  one 
mile  from  Hiram  village.  The  clay  for  the  bricks 
of  the  chimneys  was  brought  down  Saco  River 
three  miles  in  a  boat.  This  house  was  of  two 
stories,  with  a  railed  outlook  on  the  ridge  between 
the  two  chimneys.  There  was  a  very  large  one- 
story  kitchen  adjoining,  with  an  immense  chimney 
and  fire-place.  Years  after  its  building,  the  Gen- 


74  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

eral's  youngest  son,  Peleg,  said  that  at  the  time  of 
the  erection  of  the  house  he  was  seven  years  old, 
and  was  left  by  his  father  to  watch  the  fires  in 
the  eleven  fire-places,  which  were  kindled  to  dry 
the  new  masonry,  while  he  rode  to  the  post  road 
for  his  mail,  and  that  he  had  not  felt  such  a  weight 
of  responsibility  since. 

The  General  took  his  family  and  household 
goods  to  his  new  home  in  the  first  of  the  winter, 
and  commenced  housekeeping  in  the  new  house 
January  1,  1807.  He,  with  his  son  Charles  Lee, 
engaged  in  lumbering  and  farming.  General 
Wadsworth  was  a  skillful  land  surveyor  and 
draughtsman,  and  was  much  employed  in  the  new 
township.  He  was  chosen  selectman  in  1812,  and 
reflected  annually  until  1818,  and  was  twelve 
years  town  treasurer.  He  was  a  magistrate,  and 
was  looked  upon  as  the  patriarch  of  the  town. 
He  was  a  patron  of  education,  and  his  home  was 
the  central  point  of  the  region  for  hospitality  and 
culture.  He  was  long  a  communicant  of  the  Con 
gregational  church,  and  so  continued  until  his 
death  in  1829,  at  the  age  of  eighty-one.  Mrs. 
Wadsworth  died  in  1825.  Their  graves  are  in  a 
private  inclosure  on  the  home  farm.  The  original 
modest  head-stones  have  give  place  to  a  more  con 
spicuous  monument  of  marble.  The  son  Peleg, 
who  was  thirteen  years  old  when  the  family  moved 
to  Hiram,  spent  the  remainder  of  his  life  in  that 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  75 

town,  and  died  in  1875,  at  the  age  of  eighty-one. 
It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  General  Wadsworth 
and  his  sons  Charles  Lee  and  Peleg,  who  lived  and 
died  at  Hiram,  each  reared  eleven  children.  For 
the  facts  relating  to  General  Wadsworth's  life  at 
Hiram  I  am  indebted  to  his  great-grandson,  L.  W. 
Wadsworth,  who  has  in  preparation  a  history  of 
that  town. 

In  writing  to  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Longfellow 
described  the  appearance  of  her  father,  General 
Wadsworth,  in  the  following  postscript :  — 

Perhaps  you  would  like  to  see  my  father's  picture  as 
it  was  when  we  came  to  this  town  after  the  war  of  the 
Revolution,  in  1784.  Imagine  to  yourself  a  man  of  mid 
dle  size,  well  proportioned,  with  a  military  air,  arid  who 
carried  himself  so  truly  that  many  thought  him  tall.  His 
dress,  a  bright  scarlet  coat,  buff  small  clothes  and  vest, 
full  ruffled  bosom,  ruffles  over  the  hands,  white  stockings, 
shoes  with  silver  buckles,  white  cravat  bow  in  front ;  hair 
well  powdered  and  tied  behind  in  a  club,  so  called.  .  .  . 
Of  his  character  others  may  speak,  but  I  cannot  forbear 
to  claim  for  him  an  uncommon  share  of  benevolence  and 
kind  feeling.  Z.  W.  L. 

January,  1848. 

Two  of  the  sons  of  General  Wadsworth  were 
officers  in  the  United  States  navy.  Henry  became 
a  lieutenant  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  and  was  at 
tached  to  the  schooner  Scourge  in  Commodore 
Treble's  squadron,  before  Tripoli,  in  1804.  The 
last  entry  in  his  journal  before  the  attack  in  which 


76 


HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 


he  lost  his  life  was  this :  "  We  are  in  daily  ex 
pectation  of  the  Commodore's  arrival  from  Syra 
cuse  with  the  gun-boats  and  bomb  vessels,  and 
then,  Tripoli,  be  on  thy  guard."  The  story  of  his 
sad  death  is  told  in  the  inscription  on  a  marble 
cenotaph,  erected  by  his  father  to  his  memory,  in 
the  eastern  cemetery  in  Portland,  near  the  graves 
of  the  captains  of  the  Enterprise  and  Boxer :  — 

IS.  E.face.'] 

Determined  at  once  they 
prefer  death  and  the  destruc 
tion  of 

the  Enemy 

to  captivity  and  torturing 
Slavery. 
Com.  treble's 

letter. 


[&  W.face.-] 

In  memory  of 

HENRY  WADSWORTH, 

son  of 

PELEG  WADSWORTH, 
Lieut.  U.  S.  Navy, 

who  fell 

Before  the  walls  of  Tripoli  on 
the  eve  of  4th  Sept., 

1804, 

in  the  20th  year  of  his  age,  by 
the  explosion  of  a 

fire  ship, 

which  he  with  others  gallantly 
conducted  against  the  Enemy. 

[N.  E.  face.'] 
My  country  calls, 

This  world  adieu ; 
I  have  one  life, 

That  life  I  give  for  you. 


Capt.  Richard  Somers. 
Lieut.  Henry  Wadsworth. 


[N.  W.face.'] 
"  An  honor  to  his 

Country 

and  an  example  to  all 
excellent 
youth." 
Resolve  of  Congress. 


Lieut.  Joseph  Israel. 


and  10  brave  seamen 

volunteers 
were  the  devoted  band. 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  77 

It  is  from  this  gallant  officer,  his  uncle,  that  the 
poet  Longfellow  received  his  name. 

The  General's  ninth  child  was  Alexander  Scam- 
mell  Wads  worth,  born  in  Portland  in  1790.  When 
the  Constitution  frigate  fought  her  memorable 
battle,  in  August,  1812,  in  which  she  captured  the 
British  frigate  Guerriere  after  her  three  masts 
had  been  shot  away  by  the  Americans,  Alexander 
Wadsworth  was  second  lieutenant  of  the  victorious 
ship.  The  first  lieutenant,  Morris,  was  severely 
wounded  early  in  the  action,  when  Lieutenant 
Wadsworth  of  course  took  his  place,  then  only 
twenty -four.  So  well  did  he  acquit  himself  that 
his  fellow  townsmen  of  Portland  presented  him 
with  a  sword  for  his  gallantry.  Lieutenant  Wads- 
worth  was  an  officer  on  board  the  ship  which  con 
veyed  our  minister,  Joel  Barlow,  to  France  in 
1811,  and  was  presented  with  a  sword  by  that 
gentleman.  The  lieutenant  rose  to  the  rank  of 
commodore,  and  died  in  Washington  in  1851, 
aged  sixty-one. 

Another  of  the  children  of  General  Wadsworth, 
Zilpah,  performed  her  part  in  life  as  bravely,  and 
died  as  much  beloved  and  honored,  as  did  her  gal 
lant  brothers  of  the  navy.  She  was  born  at  Dux- 
bury,  January  6,  1778,  while  her  father  was  in 
the  army.  When  the  family  first  occupied  the 
brick  house  in  Portland  she  was  eight  years  old, 


78  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

and  recollected  the  inconveniences  and  discomforts 
of  the  unfinished  quarters  in  which  they  lived 
while  the  house  was  building. 

In  1799,  June  25,  Zilpah  Wads  worth,  in  behalf 
of  the  ladies  of  Portland,  presented  a  military 
standard  to  a  volunteer  company  called  the  Fed 
eral  Volunteers.  It  was  the  first  uniformed  com 
pany  in  Maine.  Joseph  C.  Boyd  was  captain,  and 
the  ensign,  who  received  the  standard  and  replied 
to  the  presentation  address,  was  named  Wiggin. 
In  after  years,  Mrs.  Longfellow  described  to  her 
daughters  the  rehearsal  of  her  speech  and  the 
waving  of  the  banner  on  the  back  steps  of  her 
father's  house  to  her  sister,  who  personated  En 
sign  Wiggin.  The  presentation  was  from  the  front 
portico  of  that  historic  mansion.  The  street  has 
been  filled  up  since  then,  hiding  the  stone  steps. 
The  motto  on  the  flag  was  "  Defend  the  laws." 
On  one  side  was  painted  the  arms  of  the  United 
States,  and  on  the  other  the  same,  united  with  the 
arms  of  Massachusetts. 

In  1804  Zilpah  Wadsworth  became  the  wife  of 
Stephen  Longfellow,  and  first  kept  house  in  a  two- 
story  wooden  building  yet  standing  on  the  south 
corner  of  Congress  and  Temple  streets.  When 
her  father's  family  left  the  brick  house  for  a  new 
home  in  the  country  in  1807,  she,  with  a  family  of 
a  husband  and  two  sons,  took  the  old  homestead. 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  79 

Mr.  Longfellow  moved  the  store,  and  in  its  place 
built  the  brick  vestibule  at  the  east  corner,  over 
which  he  placed  a  modest  sign,  which  was  there 
within  my  recollection ;  it  read  "  Stephen  Long 
fellow,  Counsellor  at  Law."  He  occupied  the  east 
ern  front  room  for  his  law  office,  opening  from  the 
brick  entry.  In  this  office  several  young  students, 
who  became  prominent  lawyers  of  Cumberland 
County,  read  "  Coke  and  Blackstone." 

One  day  in  1814  or  1815,  while  Mrs.  Longfellow 
was  indisposed  and  the  family  physician  was  in 
attendance,  the  servant  overheated  the  kitchen 
flue,  which  took  fire  and  communicated  the  flames 
to  the  attic.  The  family  knew  nothing  of  the  fire 
until  it  broke  out  through  the  roof.  Mr.  Longfel 
low  was  the  chief  fire-ward  of  the  department,  but 
his  first  thought  was  of  his  sick  wife,  whom  he 
hastily  inquired  for  of  Dr.  Weed.  He  told  Mr. 
Longfellow  to  look  to  the  fire,  and  he  would  take 
care  of  his  wife.  When  it  became  evident  that 
the  house  must  be  flooded,  the  doctor,  who  was  a 
tall,  muscular  man,  wrapped  Mrs.  Longfellow  in  a 
blanket,  and  carried  her  in  his  arms  into  Madam 
Treble's,  the  next  door,  now  the  hotel.  A  lady  of 
the  family,  who  was  then  a  child,  described  the 
scene  to  me.  Her  first  realization  of  the  danger 
was  from  seeing  her  father  standing  on  a  post  of 
the  front  fence,  with  a  brass  trumpet  to  his  mouth, 


80  HENRY   WADS  WORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

giving  loud  orders  to  the  gathering  firemen,  and 
gesticulating  violently.  After  it  had  nearly  de 
stroyed  the  roof,  the  fire  was  extinguished. 

To  increase  the  accommodations  for  his  large 
family,  Mr.  Longfellow  added  to  the  house  a  third 
story,  and  a  low  four-sided  or  "  hipped  "  roof  took 
the  place  of  the  high  two-sided  one,  with  the 
chimneys  the  same.  And  thus  repaired,  the  ven 
erable  structure,  around  which  so  much  of  histor 
ical  interest  clusters,  has  remained  to  the  present 
time.  Although  overshadowed  and  crowded  upon 
by  its  more  pretentious  neighbors,  it  is  more  in 
quired  for  now  by  strangers  than  any  other  house 
in  the  city.  May  the  polite  and  refined  descend 
ant  of  its  builder,  who  is  now  its  mistress,  long  con 
tinue  to  preside  there  and  dispense  its  traditional 
hospitalities. 


,- 


THE  PORTLAND  OP  LONGFELLOW'S 
YOUTH. 

BY   EDWARD    H.    ELWELL,    PORTLAND. 

THE  year  1807,  made  illustrious  in  the  history 
of  Portland  by  the  birth  of  Henry  W.  Longfellow, 
was  also,  in  other  respects,  a  year  of  marked 
events.  It  witnessed  the  beginnings  of  many 
things  whose  influence  still  remains  with  us.  In 
1807  another  poet,  who  became  distinguished  for 
his  sprightly  and  graceful  style,  the  late  Nathaniel 
P.  Willis,  was  born  in  Portland.  In  1807  the  Kev. 
Edward  Payson  began  here,  as  the  colleague  of 
Eev.  Elijah  Kellogg,  his  wonderful  pastorate  of 
twenty  years.  In  1807  the  third  parish  meeting 
house,  in  which  the  late  Eev.  Dr.  Dwight  so  long 
officiated,  was  built.  In  1807  the  increasing  de 
mands  of  commerce  caused  the  erection  of  the 
Observatory  on  Munjoy's  Hill.  In  1807  the  com 
merce  of  this  port,  which  had  gone  on  increasing 
with  giant  strides  for  a  period  of  more  than  ten 
years,  had  reached  a  high  state  of  prosperity  ;  and 
in  1807  the  embargo  fell  upon  and  crushed  it  with 
one  fell  stroke,  spreading  ruin  and  disaster  throuo-h- 


82  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

out  the  community.  It  was  the  culmination  of  a 
period  of  great  prosperity,  and  the  beginning  of  a 
season  of  adversity  ending  in  the  calamities  of  war. 
The  little  fishing  village  on  the  Neck,  ravaged 
by  the  Indians  in  1676,  destroyed  by  the  French 
and  Indians  in  1690,  bombarded  and  burned  by 
the  British  in  1775,  after  the  close  of  the  Revolu 
tion  again  sprang  into  existence,  and,  profiting  by 
the  Napoleonic  wars  in  Europe,  in  common  with 
the  whole  country,  entered  upon  a  career  of  un 
exampled  commercial  prosperity.  American  bot 
toms,  as  being  declared  neutrals,  were  the  only 
safe  carriers,  and  largely  monopolized  the  com 
merce  of  the  world.  Our  merchants,  no  longer 
content  with  a  coasting  trade,  engaged  in  foreign 
commerce,  and  did  a  large  importing  business. 
The  tonnage  of  the  port  largely  increased.  Wealth 
flowed  in,  and  with  it  came  greater  refinement  and 
a  more  lavish  style  of  living.  The  humble  habita 
tions  of  the  earlier  period,  which  in  1799  the  Duke 
de  la  Rochefoucauld  had  described  as  "  a  parcel  of 
mean  houses,"  began  to  give  place  to  large  and 
elegant  mansions,  some  of  which  still  remain  to 
testify  to  the  architectural  taste  as  well  as  the 
prosperity  of  the  period.  The  first  brick  store, 
built  in  1792,  was  followed  in  1799  by  the  erec 
tion  of  Mussey's  Row,  on  Middle  Street,  and  in 
1801  by  Jones'  Row,  on  Exchange  Street,  built 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  83 

by  the  Rev.  Elijah  Kellogg  ;  for  the  commercial 
spirit  of  the  time  had  seized  upon  the  ministers  of 
the  gospel.  The  town  was  full  of  enterprise. 
New  wharves  were  thrown  out  into  the  harbor, 
banks  were  established,  and  a  desirable  class  of 
residents  came  in,  bringing  capital  with  them.  The 
little  village,  which  for  ten  years  after  its  destruc 
tion  by  Mowatt  had  lain  desolate,  now  began  to 
take  on  a  solid  and  substantial  air.  In  1798  the 
Duke  de  la  Rochefoucauld  wrote  of  Portland  as 
"  so  remote  and  so  rarely  visited  by  travelers," 
but  in  1807  Dr.  D wight,  traveling  hither,  could 
write  :  "  No  place  in  our  route,  hitherto,  could  for 
its  improvement  be  compared  with  Portland.  We 
found  the  buildings  extended  quite  to  the  Cove, 
doubled  in  their  number,  and  still  more  increased 
in  their  appearance.  Few  towns  in  New  England 
are  equally  beautiful  and  brilliant.  Its  wealth  and 
business  are  probably  quadrupled." 

All  this  prosperity  was  suddenly  checked  by  the 
non-intercourse  policy  of  1806,  and  the  embargo 
which  followed  in  1807.  Commerce  was  at  once 
suspended,  and  the  almost  total  destruction  of  our 
shipping  followed.  Navigation  fell  off  nine  thou 
sand  tons  in  two  years ;  all  the  various  classes  to 
whom  it  gave  support  were  thrown  out  of  employ 
ment  ;  eleven  commercial  houses  stopped  payment 
in  the  latter  part  of  1807,  and  many  others  the 


84  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

following  year.  Great  distress  fell  upon  the  peo 
ple,  a  reverse  made  more  gloomy  by  contrast  with 
the  preceding  prosperity. 

Then  came  the  war  of  1812,  bringing  some 
activity  in  the  way  of  privateering,  and  the 
movement  of  troops  for  the  defense  of  the  town. 
Fortifications  were  thrown  up  on  Munjoy,  and 
garrisons  were  established  in  them.  Here  begin 
the  recollections  of  our  poet,  then  a  boy  of  six 
or  seven  years,  as  recorded  in  his  poem  of  "  My 
Lost  Youth." 

"  I  remember  the  bulwarks  by  the  shore, 

And  the  fort  upon  the  hill ; 
The  sunrise  gun,  with  its  hollow  roar, 
The  drum-beat  repeated  o'er  and  o'er, 
And  the  bugle  wild  and  shrill. 
And  the  music  of  that  old  song 
Throbs  in  my  memory  still : 
'  A  boy's  will  is  the  wind's  will, 
And  the  thoughts  of  youth  are  long,  long  thoughts.' " 

On  the  4th  of  September,  1813,  the  British  brig- 
of-war  Boxer,  Captain  S.  Blyth,  was  captured  in 
a  hard-fought  action  off  our  coast  by  the  United 
States  brig  Enterprise,  Lieutenant  W.  Burrows, 
and  was  brought  into  this  port  on  the  morning  of 
the  7th ;  and  the  next  day  the  remains  of  both 
commanders,  who  were  killed  in  the  action,  were 
buried  in  the  cemetery  at  the  foot  of  Munjoy's 
Hill.  This  was  an  event  well  calculated  to  im- 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  85 

press  itself  upon  the  memory  of  a  boy,  and  our 
poet  again  sings,  — 

"  I  remember  the  sea-fight  far  away, 

How  it  thundered  o'er  the  tide ! 
And  the  dead  captains,  as  they  lay 
In  their  graves,  o'erlooking  the  tranquil  bay, 

Where  they  in  battle  died." 

The  town  did  not  wholly  recover  from  the 
severe  blow  of  the  embargo  until  after  the  peace 
of  1815.  Then  began  a  period  of  slow  recupera 
tion,  during  which  its  population  made  little  in 
crease.  In  1800  the  number  of  inhabitants  was 
3,704  ;  by  1810  they  had  increased  to  7,169,  but 
at  the  close  of  the  next  decade,  in  1820,  they  were 
but  8,581.  It  is  this  little  town  of  seven  or  eight 
thousand  inhabitants  that  we  have  now  to  picture 
to  ourselves  as  the  scene  of  Longfellow's  boy 
hood  :  — 

"  The  beautiful  town 
That  is  seated  by  the  sea." 

It  lay  on  the  narrow  peninsula,  or  "Neck,"  in 
the  depression  between  the  two  hills  which  mark 
its  extremities,Munjoy  and  Bramhall.  It  had  been 
first  settled  nearly  two  centuries  before,  on  the 
sea-shore  at  its  eastern  end,  and  in  all  this  long 
period  of  time  it  had  advanced  scarcely  half-way 
towards  the  western  end.  The  early  settlers  clus 
tered  around  the  fort,  which  stood  at  the  foot  of 


86  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

what  is  now  India  Street,  and  the  shore  road  ex 
tending  eastward  from  India  Street,  forming  now 
the  easternmost  part  of  Fore  Street,  was  long  the 
court  end  of  the  town.  Here  Major  Samuel 
Moody,  coming  hither  in  1716,  built  his  house, 
and  here  in  process  of  time  sprang  up  a  number 
of  large  square  mansions,  some  with  gambrel 
roofs,  several  of  which  yet  remain.  In  one  of 
these,  standing,  on  the  one  hand,  within  a  stone's- 
throw  of  the  spot  where  the  first  settler  landed 
and  built  his  cabin,  in  1632,  and  on  the  other  not 
much  farther  from  the  site  of  old  Fort  Loyal,  our 
poet  was  born  seventy-five  years  ago  to-day.  He 
was  thus  cradled  on  historic  ground,  and  sprang 
from  amidst  the  earliest  scenes  of  civilization  on 
this  peninsula.  It  was  a  pleasant  site ;  not  then, 
as  now,  hemmed  in  by  new-made  land  encroaching 
on  the  sea.  It  looked  out  on  the  waters  of  oar 
beautiful  bay,  commanding  a  view  of  those 

"  Islands  that  were  the  Hesperides 
Of  all  ray  boyish  dreams." 

Immediately  opposite,  skirting  the  road  on  the 
seaward  side,  lay  the  beach,  the  scene  of  many  a 
baptism  on  a  Sabbath  day.  It  was  not  here,  how 
ever,  that  our  poet  spent  his  boyhood.  His  par 
ents  moved  on  with  the  progress  of  the  town,  and 
we  shall  find  him  at  a  later  period  established 
in  what  is  at  present  the  heart  of  the  city. 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  87 

Let  us  now  take  a  comprehensive  view  of  the 
town  as  it  existed  in  the  decade  between  1810  and 
1820.  As  wre  have  said,  it  nestled  in  the  hollow 
between  the  two  hills.  On  the  south  lay  the  har 
bor,  with  its  wharves  and  its  shipping  ;  on  the 
north  the  quiet  waters  of  Back  Cove,  its  shores 
nearly  vacant,  and  its  waters  as  yet  undisturbed 
by  commerce. 

On  Munjoy's  Hill  there  were  but  three  houses, 
save  those  in  old  Fort  Surnner.  It  was  a  pasture 
ground  for  cows  in  part,  and  in  part  was  given  up 
to  a  dense  growth  of  alder  bushes.  On  Indian 
Point,  where  the  Grand  Trunk  bridge  leaves  the 
hill,  stood  seven  or  eight  lofty  ancient  pine- 
trees,  and  in  the  high  branches  the  fish  hawks 
were  wront  to  build  their  nests.  The  boys  went 
a-gunning  "  back  of  the  Neck,"  and  shot  plovers 
and  curlews  and  sand-birds,  which  visited  the 
shore  in  great  numbers.  At  Fish  Point,  on  the 
harbor  side  of  the  hill,  the  ledgy  cliff,  now  blasted 
away  to  make  room  for  the  track  of  the  Grand 
Trunk  Railway,  was  cut  deep  with  the  names  of 
boys  who  spent  many  a  long  summer  afternoon  in 
wandering  around  the  solitary  shore.  The  cliff 
terminated  in  a  cove  called  "  Abigail's  Hole," 
after  an  aged  Indian  squaw  who  resided  there, 
the  last  of  the  race  that  lived  and  died  in  Port 
land. 


88  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

On  the  slope  of  the  hill  towards  the  town  stood 
a  tall  signal  spar,  with  a  tar-barrel  suspended  from 
its  summit,  which  was  to  be  set  on  fire  should  the 
enemy  approach  the  town,  or  assistance  be  needed 
from  the  country.  Washington  Street,  overlook 
ing  the  Cove,  commanding  a  view  of  the  fine 
scenery  beyond,  and  with  its  long  alternating  lines 
of  Lombardy  poplars  and  balm  of  gileads,  was 
thought  to  be  the  prettiest  street  in  town.  Stand 
ing  on  the  western  slope  of  the  hill,  one  com 
manded  the  town  below  at  a  single  glance.  All 
north  of  Cumberland  Street  was  vacant  land, 
known  as  the  "  Back  Fields."  Nearly  all  west  of 
High  Street  was  sunburnt  pasture,  where  swamp 
alternated  with  huckleberry  bushes.  State  Street 
had  been  laid  out  through  the  waste,  and  here  and 
there  along  its  line  a  stately  mansion  rose,  with 
the  huckleberry  and  bayberry  bushes  growing 
close  up  to  its  fences.  Bramhall's  Hill  was  a  far 
away  wilderness.  At  the  quiet  hour  of  sunset  one 
standing  where  the  jail  now  stands,  below  Munjoy, 
could  hear  the  sound  of  Caleb  Young's  fife  on 
Bramhall's  Hill,  two  miles  away,  no  building  to 
obstruct  sight  or  sound  intervening. 

With  the  revival  of  commerce,  after  the  war, 
trade  with  the  West  India  islands  sprang  up,  and 
low-decked  brigs  carried  out  cargoes  of  lumber 
and  dried  fish,  bringing  back  sugar,  rum,  and  mo- 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  89 

lasses.  This  trade  made  lively  scenes  on  Long 
Wharf  and  Portland  Pier.  From  lack  of  sys 
tem  and  the  appliances  of  steam,  everything  was 
then  done  with  great  noise  and  bustle  and  by 
main  strength.  The  discharging  of  a  cargo  of 
molasses  set  the  town  in  an  uproar.  The  wharves 
resounded  with  the  songs  of  the  negro  stevedores, 
hoisting  the  hogsheads  from  the  hold  without  the 
aid  of  a  winch  •  the  long  trucks,  with  heavy  loads, 
were  tugged  by  straining  horses,  under  the  whips 
and  loud  cries  of  the  truckmen.  Liquor  was  lav 
ishly  supplied  to  laboring  men,  and  it  made  them 
turbulent  and  uproarious.  Adding  to  the  busy 
tumult  were  the  teams  coming  into  town  by  the 
two  principal  avenues,  over  Deering's  bridge  and 
up  Green  Street,  or  over  Bramhall's  Hill  by  way 
of  Horse  Tavern,  bringing  charcoal  from  Water- 
borough,  shocks  from  Fryeburg,  Hiram,  and  Bald 
win,  hoop-poles,  heading,  cord-wood,  and  screwed 
hay ;  and  the  Yermonters,  in  their  blue  woolen 
frocks,  bringing  in  their  red  pungs  round  hogs, 
butter,  and  cheese.  Rev.  Elijah  Kellogg,  Jr., 
gives  a  lively  picture  of  Portland  at  this  time,  on 
a  winter  morning,  — 

"  Then  you  might  have  seen  lively  times  :  a  string  of 
board  teams  from  George  Libby's  to  Portland  Pier; 
sleds  growling ;  surveyors  running  about  like  madmen, 
a  shino-le  in  one  hand  and  a  rule-staff  in  the  other;  cattle 


90  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

white  with  frost  and  their  nostrils  hung  with  icicles ; 
teamsters  screaming  and  hallooing ;  Herrick's  Tavern 
and  all  the  shops  in  Huckler's  Row,  lighted  up,  and  the 
loggerheads  hot  to  give  customers  their  morning  dram." 

It  is  with  such  scenes  as  these  rising  in  his 
memory  that  Longfellow  sings,  — 

"  I  remember  the  black  wharves  and  the  slips, 

And  the  sea-tides  tossing  free ; 
And  Spanish  sailors  with  bearded  lips, 
And  the  beauty  and  mystery  of  the  ships, 

And  the  magic  of  the  sea." 

Portland  was  a  lumber  port,  driving  a  brisk 
little  trade  with  more  tumult  and  hurrah  than 
now  accompanies  the  transaction  of  ten  times  the 
amount  of  business  then  done.  In  addition  to  its 
lumber  trade,  it  had  its  distilleries,  its  tanneries, 
its  rope-walks,  and  its  pottery,  the  latter  two  of 
which  so  impressed  themselves  upon  the  memory 
of  the  boy  Longfellow  that  in  after  years  they 
suggested  his  poems  "  The  Ropewalk "  and 
"  Keramos,"  the  song  of  the  potter.  Men  now 
living,  going  back  in  memory  to  those  bustling 
days,  wTill  tell  you  those  were  the  times  when 
trade  was  lively,  and  think  it  but  a  dull  town 
now,  though  with  five  times  the  population  and 
many  times  the  amount  of  business. 

But  let  us  push  on  into  the  heart  of  the  "  dear 
old  town."  Passing  up  Middle  Street,  where 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  91 

blocks  of  brick  stores  have  already  begun  to  take 
the  place  of  dwelling-houses  which  once  lined  it, 
we  enter  Market  Square.  It  wears  an  aspect 
quite  different  from  that  which  it  now  presents. 
It  is  surrounded  by  small  wooden  shops,  for  the 
most  part  of  one  story.  On  the  left,  as  we  enter, 
stands  the  two  •  story  wooden  house  known  as 
Marston's  Tavern,  to  which  Mowatt  was  taken  as 
a  prisoner  by  Colonel  Thompson  and  his  men,  in 
June,  1775.  Mowatt  did  not  succeed  in  burning 
it  when,  a  few  months  later,  he  bombarded  the 
town  in  revenge  for  this  act  of  Thompson's,  but 
when  it  was  removed  in  1833  one  of  his  shot  was 
found  imbedded  in  the  chimney.  In  the  centre  of 
the  square,  near  where  now  is  the  eastern  end  of 
old  City  Hall,  stands  the  hay  scales,  and  next  to 
that  the  market  house,  a  wooden  building ;  and  be 
yond  these  a  row  of  small  wooden  shops,  termi 
nating  in  a  "  heater,"  nearly  opposite  the  head  of 
Preble  Street.  In  one  of  these  shops  we  shall  find 
Nathaniel  Shaw,  the  saddler,  accumulating  about 
his  door  that  stratum  of  leather  scraps  which, 
when  an  excavation  is  made  there  many  years 
after,  is  viewed  with  wonder  as  an  antediluvian 
relic.  In  the  "  heater  "  is  the  shop  of  "  I.  Gray," 
the  barber,  and  around  the  square  may  be  seen 
the  familiar  names  of  David  Trull,  William  Rad- 
ford,  the  cabinet-maker,  and  E.  Horton,  the  gin- 


92  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

gerbread  man,  who  dispensed  his  commodity  from 
a  wheelbarrow. 

At  the  corner  of  Preble  Street,  with  its  garden 
stretching  far  down  that  street,  stands  the  brick 
mansion  occupied  by  the  widow  of  Commodore 
Edward  Preble,  the  hero  of  Tripoli,  dead  since 
1807.  Next  to  this,  "  somewhat  back  from  the 
village  street,"  is  the  brick  residence  built  by  the 
poet's  maternal  grandfather,  General  Peleg  Wads- 
worth,  and  occupied  by  his  father,  Stephen  Long 
fellow,  Esq.  This  is  the  home  of  the  poet's 
boyhood,  and  in  fancy  we  may  see  him  playing 
beneath  its  ancient  portal,  which  still  remains  un 
altered.  Beyond  the  Longfellow  residence,  with 
its  garden  on  either  side,  extending  on  the  west 
to  the  corner  of  Brown  Street,  is  the  two-story 
wooden  residence  of  Reuben  Morton,  on  the  site 
now  occupied  by  Morton  Block.  This  house, 
raised  to  three  stories,  now  stands  on  Brown 
Street.  All  the  old  family  mansions  here  have 
been  made  to  give  way  to  the  demands  of  trade, 
save  the  Longfellow  residence,  which  still  sturdily 
maintains  its  position,  while  its  ancient  neighbors 
have  given  place  to  lofty  structures,  which  now 
look  down  upon  but  cannot  humble  it. 

In  front  of  these  mansions,  extending  from 
Preble  to  Brown  Street,  is  the  wood  market, 
where  the  teams,  loaded  with  cord-wood  brought 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  93 

in  from  the  country,  stand  beneath  the  shade  of  a 
row  of  trees,  with  a  railing  between  them  and  the 
sidewalk.  The  patient  oxen  feed  upon  the  hay 
thrown  upon  the  ground,  while  the  wood  surveyor 
measures  the  loads,  and  the  teamsters  bargain 
with  the  townsmen.  It  is  a  rural  scene  in  the 
heart  of  the  town.  Passing  a  few  small  shops  be 
yond  Brown  Street,  we  come  to  "  The  Freema 
son's  Arms,"  the  tavern  built  by  Thomas  Motley, 
grandfather  of  John  Lothrop  Motley,  the  histo 
rian.  Motley  is  dead  since  1808,  and  his  tav 
ern,  which  gives  accommodation  to  the  board 
teams  which  come  growling  and  creaking  down 
Main  (now  Congress)  Street  of  a  winter  morning, 
is  now  kept  by  Sukey  Barker.  The  Motley 
Block,  in  our  day,  perpetuates  the  memory  of  its 
builder.  Oak  Street,  which  enters  Main  Street  a 
short  distance  above  Motley's,  boasts  a  grove  of 
red  oaks,  and  Green  Street,  next  beyond,  leads 
down  to  Deering's  Woods,  where  for  generations 
the  boys  of  Portland  have  gathered  acorns,  and  of 
which  our  poet  sings,  — 

"  And  Deering's  Woods  are  fresh  and  fair, 

And  with  joy  that  is  almost  pain 
My  heart  goes  back  to  wander  there, 
And  among  the  dreams  of  the  days  that  were, 
I  find  my  lost  youth  again." 

What  was  the  intellectual  life  of  the  old  town  ? 


94  HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  Kevolution  it  had  imported 
its  literature  as  well   as   the   necessaries   of   life. 
Parson    Smith  was  jotting   down  in   his  journal 
those  quaint  observations  on  the  events  of  daily 
life  which  were  to  interest  the   coming  genera 
tions.     His   colleague,   the   Eev.   Dr.   Deane,   in 
1790,  published  his  "  Georgical  Dictionary,"  long 
a  standard  work  on  agriculture.     He  was  a  poet, 
too,  and  sang  the  praises   of  "  Pitchwood  Hill." 
In    1816,    when   Longfellow  was   a   boy  of   nine 
years,  an  event  of  marked  literary  importance  oc 
curred,  the  publication  in  Portland  of  Enoch  Lin 
coln's  poem  of   "The  Village,"  a  poem  of  more 
than  two  thousand  lines,  remarkable  for  its  ad 
vanced  moral  sentiment,  anticipating  many  of  the 
reforms  of  our  day,  as  well  as  for  its  erudition  and 
its   evenly  sustained  poetical  merit.     But  at  this 
time  the  activity  and  energy  of  the  people  were 
employed  in  procuring  means  of  support,  and  in 
the  accumulation  of  wealth,  rather  than  in  culti 
vating   the  sources  of   intellectual  improvement. 
Education  was  advancing,  however,  and  a  number 
of   young  men  were  coming  upon   the   stage   of 
action  who  were  to  shed  the  lustre  of  letters  upon 
the  town.     These  were  Nathaniel  Deering,  born 
here  in  1791;  John  Neal,  also t  a  native,  born  in 
1794  ;    and  Grenville   Mellen,  coming  here  from 
Biddeford,  where  he  was  born  in  1799.     Among 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDA  Y.  95 

these  seniors  walked  the  boy  Longfellow,  who  was 
to  outstrip  them  all. 

In  the  ranks  of  the  professions  here  there  were 
many  able. men.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Deane,  dying  in 
1S14,  has  left  as  his  successor  in  the  First  Parish 
that  scholarly  divine,  the  Rev.  Ichabod  Nichols. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Payson,  at  the  Second  Parish,  is 
preaching  those  powerful  sermons  which  are  to 
make  his  name  famous.  The  Rev.  Thomas  B. 
Ripley  has  begun  his  popular  pastorate  over  the 
First  Baptist  church.  The  Rev.  Petrus  S.  Ten- 
broeck  is  rector  at  St.  Paul's.  Elder  Samuel 
Rand  is  preaching  to  the  Free- Will  Baptists,  and 
the  Rev.  Russell  Streeter  is  fighting  the  battle  of 
the  Universalists  in  the  newly-built  church  at  the 
corner  of  Congress  and  Pearl  streets. 

In  the  law  there  are  eminent  counselors,  some 
of  whom  are  rising  to  distinction.  Prentiss  Mel- 
len,  Ezekiel  Whitman,  James  D.  Hopkins,  Simon 
Greenleaf,  and  the  poet's  father,  Stephen  Long 
fellow,  are  names  which  have  conferred  honor  on 
the  Cumberland  bar.  Among  physicians,  Dr.  Na 
thaniel  Coffin,  Jr.,  stands  at  the  head  of  his  pro 
fession.  There  are  Dr.  Shirley  Erving,  too,  and 
Dr.  Samuel  Weed,  and  Dr.  Stephen  Cummings, 
and  Dr.  Aaron  Porter,  in  his  knee-breeches  and 
green  silk  stockings,  which,  it  is  said,  the  cows 
mistook  for  cornstalks. 


96  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

There  are  eminent  merchants  in  the  town,  of 
whom  it  is  sufficient  to  mention  the  familiar  names 
of  Matthew  Cobb,  Asa  Clapp,  William  Chadwick, 
Arthur  McLellan,  James  Deering,  and  Albert 
Newhall.  These  are  gentlemen  of  the  old  school, 
sustaining  the  shock  of  commercial  disaster,  and 
extending  the  commerce  of  the  town. 

In  social  life  the  marked  distinctions  of  the  ante- 
Revolutionary  period  are  giving  way  under  the 
influence  of  our  democratic  institutions.  Cocked 
hats,  bush  wigs,  and  knee-breeches  are  passing 
out,  and  pantaloons  have  come  in.  Old  men 
still  wear  queues  and  spencers,  and  disport  their 
shrunken  shanks  in  silk  stockings.  A  homely 
style  of  speech  prevails  among  the  common  peo 
ple.  Old  men  are  "  Daddies,"  old  ladies  are 
"Marms,"  shipmasters  are  "  Skippers,"  and  school 
teachers  are  "  Masters."  There  are  no  stoves, 
and  open  fires  and  brick  ovens  are  in  universal 
use.  The  fire  is  raked  up  at  night,  and  rekindled 
in  the  morning  by  the  use  of  flint,  steel,  and  tin 
der-boxes.  Nearly  every  house  has  its  barn,  in 
which  is  kept  the  cow,  pastured  during  the  day 
on  Munjoy  or  in  Eoss's  pasture.  The  boys  go 
after  the  cows  at  night-fall,  driving  them  home 
through  the  streets.  There  are  few  private  car 
riages  kept  in  town,  and  fewer  public  vehicles. 
When,  in  1825,  General  Lafayette  visits  the  town, 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  97 

and  Governor  Parris  gives  a  ball  in  his  honor,  at 
his  residence  on  Bridge  (now  Danforth)  Street,  — 
the  site  of  which  is  now  covered  by  the  beautiful 
lawn  attached  to  the  residence  of  H.  P.  Storer, 
Esq.,  —  a  storm  coming  up  prevents  the  attendance 
of  a  great  part  of  the  company  invited,  because  of 
the  distance  out  of  town  and  the  scarcity  of  car 
riages.  The  coin  in  circulation  is  chiefly  Spanish 
dollars,  halves,  quarters,  pistareens,  eighths,  and 
sixteenths,  the  latter  two  of  which  are  known  as 
ninepences  and  fourpence  'alfpennies.  Federal 
money  is  so  little  recognized  that  prices  are  still 
reckoned  in  shillings  and  pence  —  two-and-six, 
three-and-ninepence,  seven-and-sixpence.  It  is  a 
journey  of  two  days,  by  the  accommodation  stage, 
to  Boston,  costing  eight  to  ten  dollars.  If  you  go 
by  the  mail  stage  you  may  be  bounced  through, 
with  aching  bones,  in  the  hours  between  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning  and  ten  at  night.  Or  you 
may  take  a  coaster,  and  perhaps  be  a  week  on  the 
passage.  The  old  "  Portland  Gazette  "  and  the 
"  Eastern  Argus  "  came  out  once  a  week,  and  the 
town-crier  supplies  the  place  of  the  daily  news 
paper.  There  are  few  amusements.  Theatri 
cal  performances  have  been  voted  down  ,in  town 
meeting,  and  prohibited  under  heavy  penalties  ; 
but  by  1820  the  poor  players  venture  to  make  an 
occasional  appearance,  and  set  up  their  scenery  in 

7 


98  HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

Union  Hall.  It  is  not  until  1830  that  a  theatre  is 
built,  and  it  is  soon  converted  into  a  church.  In 
the  summer  there  are  excursions  by  sailing  boats 
to  the  islands,  with  an  occasional  capsize  and  loss 
of  life.  In  the  winter  merry  sleighing  parties 
drive  out  to  "  Broad's  "  for  a  dance  and  a  supper. 
These  are  merry  times,  especially  if  the  party  is 
snowed  up,  and  compelled  to  remain  over  night. 
Flip  and  punch  flow  freely,  and  sobriety  is  the 
exception  rather  than  the  rule. 

Such  is  "  the  beautiful  town,  that  is  seated  by 
the  sea."  Such  are  the  scenes  to  which  the 
thoughts  of  the  poet  go  back,  in  after  years,  with 
a  man's  love  for  the  haunts  of  his  childhood. 
Here  he  recalls  the  sports  of  boyhood,  and  finds 
his  "  lost  youth  "  again.  The  old  town  has  not 
forgotten  him.  The  city  into  which  it  has  grown 
delights  to  honor  him.  It  cherishes  the  memory 
of  the  days  that  were,  and  would  fain  recall  him 
to  their  familiar  scenes.  May  he  live  long  to  re 
visit  the  home  of  his  boyhood,  and  to  enjoy  the 
immortal  youth  which  he  has  made  his  own. 


LONGFELLOW  AS  A  STUDENT  AND   PRO 
FESSOR  AT  BOWDOIN  COLLEGE. 

BY   A.    S.   PACKARD,    D.    D.,    BOWDOIN   COLLEGE. 

HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW  was  fortunate 
in  the  inheritance  of  names  honorable  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  State,  and  of  high  repute  for  talents, 
virtues,  and  all  that  constitutes  true  nobility.  A 
school-mate  informs  us  that  when  he  was  entering 
his  fourteenth  year  he  gave  decided  indications  of 
poetic  taste  and  genius,  anonymous  pieces  from 
his  pen,  in  the  "  Poet's  Corner  "  of  a  newspaper  of 
this  town,  having  attracted  attention.  I  think  he 
and  his  brother  Stephen  must  have  been  pupils 
under  Mr.  Nehemiah  Cleaveland,  who  had  grad 
uated  from  our  college  in  1813,  and  kept  a  private 
school  for  boys  in  Portland  in  1816  and  1817,  and 
then  left  the  school  for  a  tutorship  in  the  college. 
They  were  fitted  for  college,  I  have  no  doubt,  by 
Master  Bezaleel  Cushman,  preceptor  of  Portland 
Academy,  whose  name  is  honored  among  teachers 
of  that  generation.  I  remember  Mr.  Cushman 
well,  and  especially  the  pleasure  of  dining  with 
him  at  Hon.  Stephen  Longfellow's  table,  —  with 


100          HENRY   WADSWORTII  LONGFELLOW. 

him,  the  preceptor  of  the  academy,  myself,  the 
young  assistant  of  Mr.  Nason,  principal  of  Gorham 
Academy,  of  which  Mr.  Longfellow  was  a  trustee. 
It  was  one  of  the  numerous  proofs  of  the  court 
eous  and  friendly  interest  that  excellent  and  ad 
mirable  gentleman  manifested  in  young  men. 

In  September,  1821,  Stephen  and  Henry  Wads- 
worth  became  Freshmen  in  Bowdoin  College ; 
Henry  just  entering  the  last  half  of  his  fifteenth 
year,  an  attractive  youth,  with  auburn  locks,  clear, 
fresh,  blooming  complexion,  and,  as  might  be  pre 
sumed,  of  well-bred  manners  and  bearing. 

When  we  think  of  the  distinction  that  has 
crowned  the  class  of  1825,  a  teacher  may  be 
charged  with  singular  lack  of  discrimination  and 
interest  in  his  pupils  who  is  compelled  to  confess 
how  scanty  are  his  particular  reminiscences  of  its 
members;  and  this  for  the  plain  reason  that  no  one 
knew,  or  even  dreamed,  it  may  be,  how  famous 
some  of  them  were  to  become.  I  think  it  is  a 
tradition  that  Luther — if  not  he,  some  renowned 
German  teacher  —  used  to  doff  his  hat  reverently 
when  he  entered  his  school-room.  On  being  asked 
why  he  did  so,  "  Because,"  said  he,  "  I  see  in  my 
pupils  future  burgomasters  and  syndics  of  the  city." 

Now  and  then  a  very  trivial  circumstance  im 
prints  the  person  of  the  pupil  on  the  memory,  — 
the  eye,  or  some  other  feature,  voice,  gait,  or 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  101 

some  incident  of  college  life.  The  entrance  ex 
amination  of  Sergeant  Smith  Prentiss,  of  the  class 
of  1826,  I  recall  with  entire  distinctness.  He 
came  from  Gorham,  and  I  had  been  an  assistant 
there  •  and  when  the  lad,  —  for  he  was  scarcely 
more  than  that,  —  very  lame,  supporting  his  steps 
with  a  staff,  of  a  fresh,  healthful,  spirited  coun 
tenance,  and  offering  himself  for  Junior  standing, 
a  heavy  trial,  we  thought,  took  his  seat,  my  sym 
pathy  was  awakened  at  once.  I  see  him  with 
perfect  distinctness  as  he  sat  at  the  long  table 
in  a  back  room  of  the  old  chemical  laboratory, 
the  receptacle  of  chemicals  and  minerals  for  ex 
amination  and  analysis,  —  a  droll  omnium  gath 
erum  it  must  have  seemed  to  the  young  candi 
date;  and  my  feelings  led  me  to  open  my  part 
of  the  pressure  he  was  to  undergo  in  the  Greek  of 
two  years  very  gently.  I  soon  found  he  needed 
no  such  favor,  but  that,  entirely  self-possessed  and 
at  his  ease,  he  was  ready  at  every  point.  No 
stretch  of  fancy  would  be  likely  to  anticipate  that 
the  lad  before  me  was  to  become  one  of  the  most 
prominent  men  of  the  South  at  the  bar,  yet 
more  in  legislative  halls  and  on  the  political  plat 
form. 

Were  we  blind  and  dull  of  appreciation  that 
we  did  not  forecast,  during  those  four  years,  two 
lives,  one  in  the  front  seat  of  the  class-room,  and 


102         HENRY   WADS  WORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

one  in  the  third  seat  back,  which  were  to  leave 
names  in  the  prose  and  poetry  of  the  age,  lasting 
as  the  language  in  which  their  genius  found  ex 
pression  ? 

I  recall  the  appearance  of  a  few  of  that  class  of 
182  5,  as  they  sat  in  the  old  class-room  of  Maine 
Hall, —  Bradbury,  Josiah  Stover  Little,  Hawthorne, 
the  Longfellows,  Shepley,  and  others.  Why  ?  I 
cannot  say  why.  It  so  happened.  I  cannot  testify 
concerning  him  whose  name  we,  and  I  may  add 
the  civilized  world,  fondly  cherish,  any  more  than 
a  general  statement  of  his  unblemished  character 
as  a  pupil  and  a  true  gentleman  in  all  his  relations 
to  the  college  and  its  teachers.  It  is  a  college 
tradition  that  in  his  Sophomore  year,  at  the  annual 
examination  of  his  class,  his  version  of  an  ode  of 
Horace,  which  fell  to  him  to  render,  so  impressed 
Hon.  Benjamin  Orr,  of  the  committee  of  examina 
tion,  that  when  the  new  professorship  of  modern 
languages  was  established  his  recollection  of  that 
specimen  of  the  young  Sophomore's  taste  and 
scholarship  led  him  to  propose  him  for  the  posi 
tion. 

Of  young  Longfellow's  standing  as  a  scholar  in 
college,  one  may  judge  from  his  assignment  at 
Commencement  of  an  English  oration,  when  fewer 
parts  of  that  rank  were  given  than  of  late  years. 
His  was  the  first  claim  to  the  poem ;  but  as  the 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  103 

poem  had  no  definite  rank,  it  was  thought  due  to 
him,  since  his  scholarship  bore  a  high  mark,  that 
he  should  receive  an  appointment  which  placed 
his  scholarship  beyond  question.  His  English 
oration  had  for  its  subject  "  Our  Native  Writers." 
"  Chatter  ton  and  his  Poems  "  was  assigned  him  as 
a  subject,  and  was  so  published  in  the  Commence 
ment  Order  of  Exercises,  but  was  subsequently 
changed  by  a  pen.  The  class  poem  was  assigned 
to  Frederic  Mellen,  who  was  in  reality  more  than 
an  ordinary  college  poet. 

I  have  just  said  that  Longfellow  had  the  first 
claim  as  the  poet  of  the  class.  During  his  college 
life  he  contributed  to  the  periodicals  of  the  day 
"An  April  Day,"  "Autumn,"  "Hymn  of  the  Mo 
ravian  Nuns,"  "  The  Spirit  of  Poetry,"  "  Woods  in 
Winter,"  and  "  Sunrise  on  the  Hills,"  which  were 
received  with  great  favor,  as  early  blossoms  of  a 
spring  of  peculiar  promise  ;  and  still,  I  think,  they 
retain  a  place  in  later  editions  of  his  maturer  pro 
ductions.  Some  of  them  appeared  in  the  "  Liter 
ary  Gazette,"  a  Boston  publication.  The  editor 
of  that  periodical  was  James  G.  Carter  (Harvard, 
1820),  a  gentleman  of  ability,  whose  name  is 
honored  among  active  promoters  of  popular  edu 
cation  of  that  time.  I  was  spending  an  evening 
with  him  in  Boston,  when  he  asked  me  what 
young  man  in  our  college  sent  them  so  fine  po- 


104          HENRY    WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

etry.  It  was  Longfellow,  then  a  Junior,  I  think, 
in  college,  and  I  was  happy  to  report  of  him  as 
one  whose  scholarship  and  character  were  quite 
on  a  level  with  his  poetry. 

Our  two  most  notable  literary  occasions  of  the 
college  year,  aside  from  the  official  exhibitions 
and  Commencement,  were  the  fall  anniversaries  of 
the  two  leading  societies,  Athenaean  and  Peucin- 
ian,  each  putting  forth  its  best.  Longfellow,  in 
November,  1824,  the  first  term  of  his  Senior 
year,  pronounced  the  poem  of  the  Peucinian. 

When  Mr.  Longfellow  left  college  he  began  the 
study  of  law  in  his  father's  office ;  but  he  had  no 
heart  for  professional  life,  and  in  a  year  or  two 
the  position  for  which  he  was  peculiarly  fitted, 
and  which  he  adorned,  was  opened  for  him.  The 
professorship  of  modern  language,  for  which 
Madam  Bowdoin,  some  years  before,  had  given 
a  thousand  dollars  as  a  corner-stone  at  least  for 
its  foundation,  was  established,  and  he  cheerfully 
accepted  appointment  to  the  professorship.  He 
immediately  took  passage  for  Europe,  where  he 
spent  nearly  four  years  in  Spain,  France,  Italy, 
and  Germany,  preparing  himself  for  the  inviting 
sphere  now  opening  before  him.  In  1829  he  as 
sumed  the  duties  of  the  office,  which  he  faithfully 
and  successfully  performed  until,  with  the  regret 
and  disappointment  of  his  colleagues  and  the 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  105 

authorities  of  the  college,  he  accepted  a  similar 
position  at  Harvard,  as  successor  of  the  distin 
guished  Professor  Ticknor. 

And  now  as  to  the  character  of  his  work  while 
with  us,  a  few  words  will  suffice. 

He  approved  himself  a  teacher  who  never 
wearied  of  his  work.  He  won  by  his  gentle 
grace,  and  commanded  respect  by  his  self-respect 
and  his  respect  for  his  office,  never  allowing  an 
infringement  of  the  decorum  of  the  recitation 
room.  The  department  was  a  new  one,  and  in 
lack  of  suitable  text-books  he  prepared  a  transla 
tion  of  a  popular  French  grammar,  which  went 
through  several  editions,  an  Italian  grammar, 
Proverbes  Dramatiques,  Spanish  Tales  for  the 
class-room,  a  translation  of  "  Coplas  de  Jorge 
Manrique,"  with  an  essay  on  the  "  Moral  and 
Devotional  Poetry  of  Spain,"-  -the  version  highly 
commended  by  Professor  Ticknor  in  his  "  History 
of  Spanish  Literature." 

He  also  contributed,  while  at  Brunswick,  arti 
cles  to  the  "North  American  Review,"  which 
gave  him  reputation  in  literary  circles.  At  the 
Commencement  of  1832  he  delivered  the  poem 
before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa. 

I  have  limited  myself  to  the  special  sphere  of 
remark  assigned  me.  Of  Mr.  Longfellow's  social 
life  I  have  said  nothing.  It  began  with  us,  when 


106         HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

he  carried  to  Brunswick,  as  his  bride,  one  of  the 
daughters  of  Portland,  and  opened  a  home  of 
taste,  refinement,  and  graceful  hospitality,  which 
he  left  for  another  in  a  wider  sphere,  and  at  a 
centre  of  cherished  historical  associations,  and 
which  has  given  a  welcome  to  his  fellow  country 
men  of  the  world  of  letters. 


THE  GENIUS  OF  LONGFELLOW. 

BY  HON.  GEORGE  F.  TALBOT,  PORTLAND. 

EMERSON  has  said,  "  All  that  we  call  sacred 
history  attests  that  the  birth  of  a  poet  is  the  prin 
cipal  event  in  chronology."  Of  the  famous  bards 
of  our  time,  whose  songs  have  cheered  and  in 
spired  the  English-speaking  race,  we  must  assign 
to  the  illustrious  poet  whose  birthday  we  com 
memorate  the  nearest  place  to  the  popular  heart. 
It  is  fitting  that  this 

"  Beautiful  town 
That  is  seated  by  the  sea," 

where  he  confesses, 

"  My  heart  goes  back  to  wander  there, 
And  among  the  dreams  of  the  days  that  were, 
I  find  my  lost  youth  again," 

should  reciprocate  by  some  expression  of  its  admi 
ration  and  gratitude  the  affectionate  sentiments  he 
has  ever  cherished  towards  it.  It  is  fitting  that 
this  society,  whose  office  it  is  with  reverent  piety 
to  study  and  perpetuate  the  memory  of  whatever 
has  been  worthily  acted  or  eloquently  and  truth 
fully  spoken  among  those  whose  characters  or  pub- 


108         HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

lie  services  have  done  honor  to  our  State,  should 
celebrate  the  genius  of  a  poet  whose  fame  has  out 
grown  the  limits  of  the  State  wherein  it  had  its 
birth,  and  the  great  country  which  it  has  honored. 
In  assigning  to  Longfellow  a  popularity  preemi 
nent  among  his  fellows  in  the  poetic  art,  I  do  not 
forget  the  delight  with  which,  for  a  whole  genera 
tion,  the  American  people  have  read  the  exquisite 
versification  and  tender  and  lofty  sentiment  that 
especially  characterize  the  earlier  poems  of  Ten 
nyson.  But  while,  in  the  growing  depth  of  his 
thinking,  the  great  English  lyrist  has  more  and 
more  dissociated  his  muse  from  those  sentiments 
which  are  the  common  experiences  of  mankind, 
he  has  at  the  same  time,  in  the  severer  tastes  of 
age,  grown  contemptuous  of  the  ornaments  of 
style,  sobered  to  homely  plainness  of  speech  the 
inspirations  that  once  burst  forth  in  rhythmic  mu 
sic,  and  studied  only  to  reproduce  the  naked  sim 
plicity  and  dramatic  reality  of  history.  Then, 
too,  Tennyson's  popularity  is  not  a  just  measure 
of  his  merit,  because  a  full  consciousness  of  his 
own  powers,  and  a  sensitiveness  characterizing 
the  irritable  race  of  poets,  has  hedged  him  about 
with  a  well-respected  hauteur,  that  shuts  out  alike 
genial  sympathy  and  serviceable  criticism,  while  it 
preserves  a  seclusion  as  necessary  to  his  effective 
work  as  it  is  grateful  to  his  sensitive  feelings. 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  109 

On  the  other  hand,  Longfellow  has  made  it  the 
inviolable  maxim  of  his  art  that,  as  poetry  is  noble 
sentiment  expressed  in  beautiful  language,  fault- 
lessness  of  expression  is  always  a  condition  of  high 
excellence.  Carlyle  has  strenuously  advised  men 
who  would  instruct  their  age  to  speak  out  in  plain 
prose  what  they  have  to  say,  or  otherwise  hold 
their  peace.  The  capacity  of  language  to  be  the 
vehicle  of  the  profoundest  philosophy,  the  noblest 
sentiment,  the  most  delicate  humor,  Mr.  Carlyle 
has  himself  successfully  exemplified.  But  if,  in 
spite  of  his  invidious  warning,  an  inspired  writer 
chooses  poetry  as  his  medium  of  expression,  he 
owes  it  to  an  art  whose  laws  have  been  rigidly 
imposed  by  its  great  masters  to  conform  to  those 
laws.  This  requirement  Mr.  Longfellow  has  ever 
respected.  Besides  this,  a  thoroughly  genial  and 
friendly  nature  has  kept  him  accessible  to  all 
other  minds,  and  hospitable  and  courteous  to  all 
persons  attracted  by  his  genius,  no  matter  in  how 
homely  or  intrusive  a  form  this  admiration  has 
been  expressed.  Thus,  while  in  Tennyson's  song 
we  detect  a  tone  which  expresses  the  daintiness  of 
his  disdain  for  less  exquisitely  endowed  natures, 
Longfellow  invites  the  confidence  of  narrower  and 
limited  minds  by  the  warmth  of  his  human  sympa 
thies,  and  by  his  tender  appreciation  of  the  com 
mon  joys  and  sorrows  of  universal  life. 


110          HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

Sixty  years  is  a  long  period  to  devote  to  one 
pursuit.  Few  men  are  so  happy  as  Longfellow 
was  in  finding  in  their  youth  the  precise  work 
they  can  best  accomplish,  and  the  necessary  equip 
ment  to  undertake  it.  In  his  grave  and  sad  salu 
tatory,  delivered  at  Bowdoin  on  the  fiftieth  anni 
versary  of  his  graduation,  he  gave  this  counsel  to 
the  young  scholars,  listening  spell-bound  by  the 
charm  of  his  verse  and  the  venerable  beauty  of 
his  presence  :  — 

"  Study  yourselves  ;  and  most  of  all  note  well 
Wherein  kind  Nature  meant  you  to  excel." 

It  told  the  story  of  his  own  splendid  success.  In 
his  very  boyhood,  among  scenes  that  have  for 
us  the  charm  of  home,  Nature  revealed  herself  to 
his  sight  and  soul  in  the  beauty  of  sea  and  sky, 
cliff  and  forest,  and  he  felt  that  whatever  aims  or 
ambitions  were  open  to  other  men,  for  him  there 
was  the  task  to  interpret  those  mysterious  voices 
of  the  night  and  day  dreams  of  a  dawning  fancy 
that  had  been  imparted  to  him ; 

"  And  as  imagination  bodies  forth 

The  forms  of  things  unknown,  .  .  . 
Turn  them  to  shapes,  and  give  to  airy  nothing ; 
A  local  habitation  and  a  name." 

He  could  say  as  Wordsworth  nobly  said  of  him 
self, — 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  HI 

"  On  man,  on  nature,  and  on  human  life, 
Musing  in  solitude,  I  oft  perceive 
Fair  trains  of  imagery  before  me  rise 
Accompanied  by  feelings  of  delight, 
Pure,  or  with  no  unpleasing  sadness  mixed." 

For  us  a  new  charm  must  come  into  these  famil 
iar  scenes  that  confront  our  daily  sight, — the 
graceful  spires  of  churches,  the  quaint  red  tower 
of  the  Observatory,  rising  from  the  clustering 
trees  that  mark  the  sweep  of  the  closely-built 
ridge  of  the  peninsula,  the  great  sea  thrusting  its 
shining  fingers  among  the  jutting  headlands  and 
wooded  islands,  the  magnificent  fringe  of  Deer- 
ing's  Oaks,  and  the  dusky  purple  of  the  White 
Mountains  and  the  Oxford  hills,  —  when  we  re 
member  that  it  was  pictures  like  these  that  awoke 
in  our  poet's  young  mind  the  consciousness  of  his 
powers  and  assigned  to  him  the  work  of  his  life. 
Thus  he  tells  this  early  experience :  — 

"  And  dreams  of  that  which  cannot  die, 

Bright  visions,  came  to  me, 
As  lapped  in  thought  I  used  to  lie, 
And  gaze  into  the  summer  sky, 
Where  the  sailing  clouds  went  by, 

Like  ships  upon  the  sea  ; 

"  Dreams  that  the  soul  of  youth  engage 

Ere  Fancy  has  been  quelled  ; 
Old  legends  of  the  monkish  page, 
Traditions  of  the  saint  and  sage, 


112         HENRY  WADSW011TH  LONGFELLOW. 

Tales  that  have  the  rime  of  age, 
And  chronicles  of  Eld. 

"  And,  loving  still  these  quaint  old  themes, 

Even  in  the  city's  throng 
I  feel  the  freshness  of  the  streams, 
That,  crossed  by  shades  and  sunny  gleams, 
Water  the  green  land  of  dreams, 

The  holy  land  of  song." 

It  is  easy  to  see  now,  and  thus  to  account  for 
the  perfection  and  completeness  of  his  work,  that 
all  his  studies,  all  the  employments  and  incidents 
of  his  life,  —  more  than  this,  the  friendships  and 
domestic  joys  and  sorrows  which  have  been  his 
experience,  —  contributed  to  strengthen  the  pow 
ers  of  his  imagination,  to  perfect  the  art  of  his 
expression,  and  to  furnish  the  materials  for  the 
varied  music  of  his  verse. 

Mr.  Longfellow  became  a  poet  by  the  natural 
and  delicate  sensitiveness  of  his  mind  to  whatever 
is  picturesque  in  nature,  complete  in  art,  pathetic 
in  incident,  or  romantic  in  history.  To  his  rare 
perception 

*'  Wondrous  truths,  and  manifest  as  wondrous, 

God  hath  written  in  those  stars  above  ; 
But  not  less  in  the  bright  flowerets  under  us 
Stands  the  revelation  of  his  love." 

"  And  the  Poet,  faithful  and  far-seeing, 
Sees,  alike  in  stars  and  flowers,  a  part 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  113 

Of  the  self-same,  universal  being, 

Which  is  throbbing  in  his  brain  and  heart." 

In  his  youth  and  in  the  poems  of  that  period 
this  susceptibility  to  the  beauty  of  things,  and  to 
the  lessons  which  they  teach  the  well-ordered  and 
docile  mind,  is  particularly  manifest.  He  said 
then,  — 

"  Oh  what  a  glory  doth  this  world  put  on 
For  him  who,  with  a  fervent  heart,  goes  forth 
Under  the  bright  and  glorious  sky,  and  looks 
On  duties  well  performed,  and  days  well  spent !  " 

And  in    another  early   poem   this  was   the  tonic 
cheerfulness  he  found  in  communion  with  Nature  : 

"  If  thou  wouldst  read  a  lesson,  that  will  keep 
Thy  heart  from  fainting  and  thy  soul  from  sleep, 
Go  to  the  woods  and  hills  !     No  tears 
Dim  the  sweet  look  that  Nature  wears." 

Emerson  says,  "  The  great  majority  of  men 
seem  to  be  minors,  who  have  not  yet  come  into 
possession  of  their  own,  or  mutes,  who  cannot  re 
port  the  conversation  they  have  had  with  Nature. 
There  is  some  obstruction  or  some  excess  of 
phlegm  in  our  constitution,  which  does  not  suffer 
them  to  yield  their  due  effect.  Too  feeble  fall  the 
impressions  of  nature  on  us  to  make  us  artists. 
The  poet  is  the  person  in  whom  the  powers  are 
in  balance,  the  man  without  impediment,  who  sees 
and  handles  that  which  others  dream  of,  trav- 


114         HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

erses  the  whole  scale  of  experience,  and  is  repre 
sentative  of  man  in  virtue  of  being  the  largest 
power  to  receive  and  to  impart." 

For  us,  the  great  majority,  obstructed  in  faculty 
and  feebly  responsive  to  the  impressions  of  nature, 
Longfellow  has  done  this  needed  office.  He  sees 
what  we  dream,  traverses  the  range  of  our  experi 
ence,  and  by  his  larger  power  to  receive  and  im 
part  has  become  representative  of  all  our  finer 
sentiments.  But,  in  saying  this,  we  must  dis 
criminate  between  greater  and  less.  There  are 
ranges  of  sublime  vision  from  which  he  has  sedu 
lously  kept  himself  aloof,  depths  of  philosophic 
speculation  into  which  his  thoroughly  devout 
spirit  has  never  entered,  holy  ground  of  inspira 
tion  into  which,  even  with  unshodden  feet,  he  has 
not  presumed  to  walk.  Let  him  ever  describe  his 
own  genius,  although  he  will  do  it  not  only  tune 
fully,  but  with  a  too  modest  self-depreciation.  In 
the  "  Spanish  Student,"  a  drama  full  of  the  most 
picturesque  situations,  gushing  with  the  enthu 
siasm  of  youthful  feeling  and  enlivened  with  some 
of  the  Sweetest  songs  in  the  English  language,  he 
thus  depicts  the  poetic  work  he  has  done  :  — 

"  All  the  means  of  action  — 
The  shapeless  masses,  the  materials  — 
Lie  everywhere  about  us.     What  we  need 
Is  the  celestial  fire  to  change  the  flint 
Into  transparent  crystal,  bright  and  clear. 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  115 

That  fire  is  genius  !     The  rude  peasant  sits 

At  evening  in  his  smoky  cot,  and  draws 

With  charcoal  uncouth  figures  on  the  wall. 

The  son  of  genius  comes,  foot-sore  with  travel, 

And  begs  a  shelter  from  the  inclement  night. 

He  takes  the  charcoal  from  the  peasant's  hand, 

And,  by  the  magic  of  his  touch  at  once 

Transfigured,  all  its  hidden  virtues  shine, 

And,  in  the  eyes  of  the  astonished  clown, 

It  gleams  a  diamond  !     Even  thus  transformed, 

Rude  popular  traditions  and  old  tales 

Shine  as  immortal  poems,  at  the  touch 

Of  some  poor,  houseless,  homeless,  wandering  bard, 

Who  had  but  a  night's  lodging  for  his  pains." 

It  was  not  only  a  confession  of  his  tastes,  but  a 
too  modest  assignment  of   his  own  rank,  when, 
after   achievements  that   had  made    him  famous 
throughout  the  world,  he  thus  sang :  — 
"  Come,  read  to  me  some  poem, 

Some  simple  and  heart-felt  lay, 

That  shall  soothe  this  restless  feeling, 

And  banish  the  thoughts  of  day. 

"  Not  from  the  grand  old  masters, 

Not  from  the  bards  sublime, 
Whose  distant  footsteps  echo 
Through  the  corridors  of  Time. 

"  For,  like  strains  of  martial  music, 
Their  mighty  thoughts  suggest 
Life's  endless  toil  and  endeavor ; 
And  to-night  I  long  'for  rest. 


116         HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

"  Read  from  some  humbler  poet. 

Whose  songs  gushed  from  his  heart, 
As  showers  from  the  clouds  of  summer, 
Or  tears  from  the  eyelids  start." 

In  a  sense  that  is  not  so  true  of  any  other  poet 
who  has  written  in  the  English  language,  Mr. 
Longfellow  is  the  poet  of  the  people.  No  creative 
artist  ever  had  a  larger  and  more  immediate  re 
ward  for  his  completed  work.  He  sang  for  the  men 
and  women — yes,  and  for  the  children  —  of  his 
country  and  his  time  ;  sang  with  a  cultivated  and 
exquisite  appreciation  of  their  tastes,  their  feel 
ings,  their  ideals ;  sang  not  of  the  eccentric  expe 
riences,  the  insatiable  ambitions,  the  tragic  heart- 
breakings,  of  heroic  souls,  aloof  from  their  kind, 
but  of  the  daily  cares,  the  simple  satisfactions,  and 
the  common  fates  of  men  as  men,  of  the  hard 
ships  of  toil,  of  the  misery  of  defeated  endeavor, 
of  the  sombre  weariness  of  backward-looking  age, 
and  of  the  pathos  of  death.  Depicting  experi 
ences  so  universal,  appealing  to  sentiments  so 
characteristic  of  humanity,  the  response  of  the 
people  he  has  addressed  has  been  immediate,  uni 
versal,  and  hearty.  He  has  not  had  to  wait  for 
appreciation,  nor  to  appeal  to  time  to  bring  an 
other  age  into  more  congenial  relations  with  his 
feelings.  Every  chord  he  has  struck  has  given 
quick  and  harmonious  echoes.  Now  for  many 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  117 

years  no  poem  of  his,  however  brief,  has  been 
published  which  universal  journalism  did  not  take 
note  of  as  a  conspicuous  event  of  current  history. 
What  he  sends  to  the  hands  of  the  printer  on 
one  day  on  the  next  is  a  household  word  by  a 
thousand  firesides,  and  its  sweet  melodies  are 
ringing  among  the  hallowed  voices  of  as  many 
homes.  There  is  a  lyric  sweetness,  a  tender,  in 
telligible  sentiment  so  accordant  with  the  common 
experience  of  all  lives,  in  all  that  .he  has  written, 
that  no  elocutionist  has  been  required  to  render 
its  simple  melody,  no  philosophic  critic  to  mediate 
between  its  subtle  meaning  and  the  popular  intel 
ligence. 

More  than  any  other  of  our  poets  we  have 
waited  for  him  to  celebrate  and  fitly  interpret  the 
great  events  in  our  national  history.  Looking 
through  the  dull  annals  of  a  people  in  primitive 
combat  with  the  hard  conditions  of  nature,  with 
an  absorbed  and  patient  thrift  building,  in  the 
wilderness  of  a  new  world,  homes  into  which  in  a 
later  generation  might  come  the  culture  and  re 
finement  which  continuous  prosperity  brings,  he 
has  found  whatever  there  is  in  their  history  or 
their  legends  that  is  heroic,  or  tragic,  or  capable 
of  an  ethical  lesson,  and  touched  it  in  the  telling 
with  the  glory  of  his  own  genius.  How  noble  and 
pathetic  was  the  tribute  he  paid  to  his  three 


118         HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

friends,  Felton,  Agassiz,  and  Sumner  !  How  sweet 
to  a  great  poet's  heart  must  be  such  delicate  and 
discriminating  praises  as  he  has  bestowed  upon 
Tennyson  and  Whittier,  the  great  brothers  of  his 
art !  Of  the  former  he  sings,  — 

"  Not  of  the  howling  dervishes  of  song, 
Who  craze  the  brain  with  their  delirious  dance, 
Art  thou,  O  sweet  historian  of  the  heart." 

And  the  lofty  piety  of  the  latter  commands  this 

tribute :  — 

"  O  thou,  whose  daily  life  anticipates 
The  life  to  come,  and  in  whose  thought  and  word 
The  spiritual  world  preponderates, 
Hermit  of  Amesbury  !  thou,  too,  hast  heard 
Voices  and  melodies  from  beyond  the  gates, 
And  speakest  only  when  thy  soul  is  stirred  ! " 

The  Romans  had  one  word  to  signify  the  poet 
and  the  prophet,  and  all  the  older  prophecy  of  the 
world  is  poetry.  The  converse  also  is  true,  for 
since  poetry  is  the  daily  newspaper  and  court 
journal  of  the  ideal  world,  it  is  the  prediction  of 
all  that  is  yet  to  become  fact  and  history.  We 
did  not  heed  the  vaticination  this  prophet  uttered, 
but  uttered  too  late  to  avert  the  catastrophe  he 
foreshadowed :  — 

"  There  is  a  poor,  blind  Samson  in  this  land, 

Shorn  of  his  strength  and  bound  in  bonds  of  steel, 
Who  may,  in  some  grim  revel,  raise  his  hand, 
And  shake  the  pillars  of  this  Commonweal." 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  119 

How  cheering  was  his  note  in  the  agony  of  our 
struggle  for  national  life  !  — 

"  Ho,  brave  land  !  with  hearts  like  these 
Thy  flag,  that  is  rent  in  twain, 
Shall  be  one  again, 
And  without  a  seam  !  " 

Emerson  says,  again,  "  The  writer,  like  the 
priest,  must  be  exempted  from  secular  labor ;  his 
work  needs  a  frolic  health ;  he  must  be  at  the 
top  of  his  condition."  We  have  had  eminent  and 
successful  poets,  who  have  been  also  historians, 
journalists,  teachers,  preachers,  critics,  metaphy 
sicians,  reformers,  diplomats,  and  bankers,  giving 
to  the  jealous  muse  a  divided  allegiance.  It  has 
been  the  good  fortune  of  Longfellow  that  he  has 
been  kept,  with  no  distracting  employments,  in 
studies  that  fed  the  fire  of  his  poetic  passion  with 
new  material,  and  at  the  top  of  a  sound  and 
healthy  condition  of  productive  labor.  The  only 
department  of  science  in  which  he  has  been  a 
successful  teacher  is  the  science  of  language  and 
of  the  deft  use  of  winged  words,  the  myriad-toned 
instrument  of  poesy.  Especially  has  his  mastery 
of  the  languages,  French,  German,  Italian,  and 
Spanish,  put  within  his  reach  those  treasures  of 
romantic  story,  that  weird  blending  of  history  and 
legend  in  which  the  earlier  chronicles,  poems, 
ballads,  and  folk-lore  of  Europe  abound,  which 


120         HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

have  a  charm  for  us,  thoroughly  modern  and 
secular  as  we  are,  that  they  have  not  for  any  other 
people. 

Mr.  Longfellow  has  that  vivid  imagination  which 
sees  as  realities  its  own  illusions.  He  meets  an 
other  requirement  of  our  great  master  of  the  po 
etic  art :  "  He  believes  in  his  poetry.  He  par 
takes  of  the  feast  he  spreads,  and  kindles  and 
amuses  himself  with  that  which  amuses  us." 
Whole  poems  of  his  are  devoted  to  the  delineation 
of  these  romantic  legends  of  our  ancestors  across 
the  sea,  while  there  is  scarcely  a  song  that  is  not 
enlivened  and  enriched  by  some  legendary  allu 
sion,  some  sparkling  jewel  picked  up  by  him  in 
his  loving  walks  among  the  graves  and  monu 
ments  of  knights  and  saints,  along  the  corridors  of 
ruined  abbeys,  the  dry  moats  of  ivy-crowned  cas 
tles,  and  the  dim  shadows  under  the  arches  of  vast 
cathedrals.  Indeed,  it  has  been  charged  that  he 
has  so  deeply  imbibed  the  spirit  of  this  antique 
and  foreign  romance  as  to  be  no  longer  either 
modern  or  national  in  his  spirit  or  method.  When 
we  remember  with  what  a  pathetic  tenderness  he 
has  recreated  for  us  our  own  legend  of  the  public 
tragedy  of  a  pious  and  rural  people  driven  into 
perpetual  exile,  a  tragedy  saddened  by  the  private 
grief  of  a  devoted  and  loving  maiden  enduring  the 
exile  of  her  race  and  her  own  deeper  loss  in  a 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  121 

hopeless  search  for  her  betrothed  lover,  and  find 
ing  her  trysting-place  only  in  old  age,  by  the  bed 
side  of  pestilence ;  when  we  read  the  song  of  Hia 
watha,  and  see  with  what  artistic  faithfulness  he 
has  wrought  into  verse,  the  very  wildness  of  which 
has  in  it  a  sound  of  the  woods,  those  poetic  ideas 
which  have  haunted  the  minds  of  all  sensitive  per 
sons  in  connection  with  the  customs,  costumes, 
character,  and  fortunes  of  the  strange  race  of  abo 
rigines,  whom  our  race  has  supplanted  on  this 
continent,  we  can  see  that  Mr.  Longfellow  is  no 
less  an  American  poet  because  so  much  of  his 
inspiration  came  as  a  whiff  of  the  Old  World  over 
the  sea.  This  native  material  he  has  worked  so 
well  is  only  so  much  less  abundant. 

Among  the  characteristic  excellences  of  Mr. 
Longfellow  as  a  poet,  his  fidelity  to  the  estab 
lished  canons  of  versification  I  have  already 
spoken  of.  I  know  the  liberties  great  masters  of 
thought  may  take  and  have  taken  with  expres 
sion.  I  know  the  modern  taste  that  considers 
conformity  to  the  regularity  of  measurement  and 
the  necessity  of  rhyme  mere  mechanical  arts,  that 
degrade  and  enslave  the  mind.  I  am  aware  that 
Emerson,  himself  among  the  order  of  great  poets, 
and  lacking  general  appreciation  by  his  lawless 
ness  in  conforming  to  the  established  rules  of  ex 
pression,  has  said,  —  "Not  metres,  but  a  metre- 


122          HENRY  WADS  WORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

making  argument  makes  a  poem,  a  thought  so 
passionate  and  alive  that,  like  the  spirit  of  a  plant 
or  an  animal,  it  has  an  architecture  of:  its  own, 
and  adorns  Nature  with  a  new  thing."  I  know 
the  aesthetic  craze  that  has  ennobled  the  howling 
dervishes  of  song.  I  know  the  fashion  that  insists 
that  the  metreless  epigrams  of  Walt  Whitman 
are  noblest  poetry,  —  epigrams  wherein  the  terse 
sententiousness  of  the  proverb  gives  place  to  a 
stately  grandiloquence,  which  the  moment  the 
music  of  the  verse  ceases  becomes  ridiculous. 
When  on  the  stage  the  manager  wishes  to  insure 
that  a  tender  and  pathetic  passage  of  the  play 
shall  not  be  laughed  at,  he  introduces  an  accom 
paniment  of  solemn  music  to  lift  his  auditors  into 
the  required  mood.  It  is  an  effect  the  poet  can 
not  quite  disdain. 

But,  notwithstanding  these  eccentricities  of  taste, 
Emerson  himself  confessed  that  he  "  recalled  every 
good  poem  by  its  rhythm,  and  detected  an  unskill 
ful  writer  by  the  poverty  of  his  chimes."  That 
art  cannot  be  a  mere  conventional  or  childish  one 
which  in  all  languages  has  charmed  the  human 
ear  and  stirred  in  the  human  soul  the  noblest  en 
thusiasms  and  the  most  heroic  actions;  nor  can 
that  be  a  tawdry  rhetorical  trick,  unfit  to  hamper 
the  wings  of  genius,  which  Homer  and  Dante, 
Milton  and  Goethe,  found  to  be  such  furtherance 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  123 

to  the  effectiveness  and  impressiveness  of  their 
grand  speech. 

Not  a  little  of  his  fame  Mr.  Longfellow  owes  to 
the  fact  that  he  is  a  great  artist  in  the  construc 
tion  of  rhythm  and  rhyme.  Kindred  to  his  sus 
ceptibility  to  poetic  influences,  the  product  of  a 
fervid  and  impressible  imagination,  there  is  in  him 
a  delicate  sensitiveness  to  the  music  of  language. 
I  know  of  no  writer,  whose  verse  has  this  relish  of 
melody  and  music,  who  has  produced  by  the  same 
kind  of  talent  that  makes  a  great  singer,  as  it 
were  by  sleight  of  tongue,  those  effects  of  meas 
ured  sequences  of  sounds,  which  less  happily  en 
dowed  writers  have  inadequately  achieved  by  the 
studied  arrangement  of  dactyls  and  spondees,  all 
scanning  correctly,  but  which  somehow  will  never 
sing  themselves. 

There  are  lyrical  effects  produced  on  the  ear 
by  some  of  his  stanzas,  wherein  the  rhymes  and 
grand  flow  of  the  rhythm  are  as  complete  as  in 
Milton's  Lycidas,  while  the  structure  of  the  verse 
is  better  balanced  and  more  symmetrical.  Only 
Tennyson's  earlier  odes  have  the  same  delicate 
and  facile  grace.  Take  this  specimen  from  the 
"Quadroon  Girl:"- 

"  The  Slaver  in  the  broad  lagoon 

Lay  moored  with  idle  sail; 

He  waited  for  the  rising  moon, 

And  for  the  evening  gale. 


124         HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

"  Under  the  shore  his  boat  was  tied, 

And  all  her  listless  crew 
Watched  the  gray  alligator  slide 
Into  the  still  bayou." 

Or  this,  from  the  "  Fire  of  Drift- Wood  :  "  — 

"  The  windows,  rattling  in  their  frames, 

The  ocean,  roaring  up  the  beach, 
The  gusty  blast,  the  bickering  flames, 
All  mingled  vaguely  in  our  speech." 

But  why  select  from  volumes  that  lie  on  every 
table,  from  songs  read  by  the  children  of  all 
English-speaking  people,  when,  from  the  earliest 
products  of  glowing  youth  to  the  faithfully 
wrought  creations  of  an  age  that  gives  no  token 
of  decay,  all  that  he  has  written  form  one  grand 
diapason  of  harmony,  rich  in  the  blending  of 
varied  melodies,  and  show  with  what  a  master's 
hand 

"  He  touched  the  tender  stops  of  various  quills 
With  eager  thought  warbling  his  Doric  lay  "  ? 

To  make  this  inadequate  sketch  of  the  genius  of 
Longfellow  less  incomplete,  let  me  in  fine  speak 
of  the  elevation,  purity,  and  lofty  piety  of  all  that 
he  has  written,  wherein  can  be  found  "  no  line 
which,  dying,  he  could  wish  to  blot."  Not  in  the 
slightest  degree  has  he  enlarged  the  license  the 
generous  world  always  permits  to  genius  to  excite 
a  prurient  taste  or  corrupt  the  heart  by  the  delin- 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  125 

eation  of  unregulated  passions,  reveling  in  the 
glories  of  art  or  in  the  beauties  of  an  unconven 
tional  society,  embosomed  in  primitive  nature,  and 
amenable  only  to  its  laws.  The  loves  of  his  he 
roes  and  heroines  have  been  the  pure  domestic 
loves,  out  of  which  have  grown  the  sanctities  of 
home,  the  pieties  of  the  household,  the  orderly 
social  life  of  man.  He  has  been  the  preacher  of 
faith  in  the  midst  of  skepticism  and  doubt,  of  hope 
and  trust  when  it  had  become  a  fashion  of  the 
cultured  world  to  regret  the  fortune  of  man  and 
criticise  the  appointments  of  nature.  For  the 
manifest  evils  of  life,  brought  to  his  susceptible 
heart  by  a  sympathetic  nature,  and  to  his  own  ex 
perience  by  terrible  visitations  of  sorrow,  to  vary 
the  fortunes  of  a  favored  and  happy  life,  his  uni 
form  lesson  has  been  patience. 

"  Let  us  be  patient !     These  severe  afflictions 

Not  from  the  ground  arise, 
But  oftentimes  celestial  benedictions 
Assume  this  dark  disguise. " 

"  Be  still,  sad  heart !  and  cease  repining  ;i 
Behind  the  clouds  is  the  sun  still  shining ; 
Thy  fate  is  the  common  fate  of  all, 
Into  each  life  some  rain  must  fall, 

Some  days  must  be  dark  and  dreary." 

In    religion    and  all  religions  he  has  not  only 
recognized  with  a  poet's  relish  all  that  was  pict- 


126          HENRY   WADS  WORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

uresque  in  the  grand  cathedral,  the  chanted 
prayers  by  candle-light,  the  dirges  sung  by  the 
church  over  dead  heroes,  the  lonely  recluse  in  his 
cell  meditating  on  death  and  God,  the  martyr  to 
his  faith  sending  his  soul  to  heaven  upon  the 
spires  of  flame  that  is  consuming  his  flesh,  but  he 
has  recognized  as  well  the  fundamental  truth  and 
power  that  has  been  exercised  in  all  religions  to 
raise  the  souls  of  men  from  the  fears,  the  infirmi 
ties,  and  the  sins  that  beset  the  mortal  life  to 
peace,  self-renunciation,  and  submission  to  the 
Supreme  order  of  the  universe ;  while  the  catholic 
ity  of  his  faith  he  has  himself  well  expressed  in 
this  his  "  Law  of  Life  :  "  — 

"  Live  I,  so  live  I, 

To  my  Lord  heartily, 
To  my  Prince  faithfully, 

To  my  neighbor  honestly  ; 
Die  I,  so  die  I." 

Grateful  for  the  service  his  long  and  industrious 
life  has  enabled  him  to  do  for  his  country  and  his 
age,  we  crown  with  our  praise  his  noble  work,  and 
rejoice  in  the  serenity  and  peace  which  a  well-or 
dered  mind  can  gather  in  age  from  the  recollection 
of  a  well-spent  life. 


LETTER  FROM  HON.  J.  W.  BRADBURY. 

WASHINGTON,  February  25,  1882. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  sincerely  regret  that  I  cannot  be  with 
you  at  the  meeting  of  the  Society  in  honor  of  our  dis 
tinguished  native  author,  and  that  I  have  not  the  op 
portunity,  in  the  midst  of  my  occupations  on  my  journey 
to  the  South,  to  say  what  I  would  like  to  have  said  on 
this  interesting  occasion. 

We  are  all  proud  to  recognize  the  fact  that  Longfellow 
has  won  a  place  in  history,  —  that  his  name  is  enrolled 
with  the  names  of  those  who  were  not  born  to  die  ;  and 
it  is  peculiarly  appropriate  that  a  society  devoted  to 
historic  research  should  avail  itself  of  an  occasion  like 
the  present,  in  the  city  of  his  birth,  to  do  honor  to  one 
who  has  reflected  so  much  honor  not  only  upon  his  native 
land,  but  also  upon  the  republic  of  letters  throughout 
the  world. 

Let  us  send  him  our  congratulations  that  he  is  spared 
by  a  kind  Providence  to  receive  on  the  seventy-fifth 
anniversary  of  his  birth  the  testimonials  of  the  love  and 
veneration  in  which  he  is  held  by  hosts  of  friends  in  the 
Old  World  and  the  New. 

I  first  knew  Longfellow  when  I  entered  as  a  Sophomore 
in  the  class  of  which  he  was  a  member  in  1822  ;  and  I  like 
to  think  of  him  as  I  then  knew  him.  His  slight,  erect 
figure,  delicate  complexion,  and  intelligent  expression  of 


128        HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

countenance  come  back  to  rne  indelibly  associated  with 
his  name. 

He  was  always  a  gentleman  in  his  deportment,  and  a 
model  in  his  character  and  habits.  For  a  year  or  more 
we  had  our  rooms  out  of  college  and  in  the  same  vicinity, 
and  I  consequently  saw  much  more  of  him  than  of  many 
others  of  our  class.  I  recollect  that  at  our  Junior  exhi 
bition  a  discussion  upon  the  respective  claims  of  the  two 
races  of  men  to  this  continent  was  assigned  to  Longfellow 
and  myself.  He  had  the  character  of  King  Philip,  and 
I  of  Miles  Standish.  He  maintained  that  the  continent 
was  given  by  the  Great  Spirit  to  the  Indians,  and  that 
the  English  were  wrongful  intruders.  My  reply,  as 
nearly  as  I  can  recall  it,  was  that  the  aborigines  were 
claiming  more  than  their  equal  share  of  the  earth,  and 
that  the  Great  Spirit  never  intended  that  so  few  in 
number  should  hold  the  whole  continent  for  hunting- 
grounds,  and  that  we  had  a  right  to  a  share  of  it  to 
improve  and  cultivate.  Whether  this  occurrence  had 
anything  to  do  in  suggesting  the  subject  for  one  of  his 
admirable  poems  or  not,  one  thing  is  certain,  that  he 
subsequently  made  a  great  deal  more  of  Miles  Standish 
than  I  did  on  that  occasion. 

As  a  scholar  Longfellow  always  maintained  a  high 
rank  in  a  class  that  contained  such  names  as  Hawthorne, 
Little,  Cilley,  Cheever,  Abbott,  and  others.  Although 
he  was  supposed  to  be  somewhat  devoted  to  the  Muses, 
he  never  came  to  the  recitation  room  unprepared  with 
his  lessons.  Hawthorne,  on  the  contrary,  shy  and  retiring 
in  his  habits,  always  appeared  to  be  so  much  absorbed 
in  his  own  thoughts,  or  occupied  with  one  or  the  other  of 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  129 

his  special  friends,  Franklin  Pierce  or  Horatio  Bridge, 
that  he  paid  little  attention  to  preparation  for  the  reci 
tation  room,  and  to  us  superficial  observers  he  did  not 
give  much  promise  that  he  was  to  place  himself  in  the 
front  rank  of  the  best  writers  in  the  English  language. 
Cilley  was  a  young  man  of  great  promise,  and  possessed 
qualities  that  would  have  made  him  eminent  in  civil  and 
military  life,  had  he  not  been  prematurely  cut  off  at  the 
commencement  of  his  career. 

At  Commencement  Longfellow  had  one  of  the  three 
English  orations  assigned  to  the  class,  Josiah  S.  Little, 
from  Portland,  having  the  valedictory,  which  was  first  in 
rank.  At  that  time,  and  for  more  than  thirty  years  after 
wards,  the  English  orations  outranked  the  Latin  in  old 
Bowdoin.  I  allude  to  this  fact  to  correct  an  error  that 
occurred  in  a  biographical  notice  of  our  worthy  class 
mate,  Benson,  in  giving  him  a  rank  he  would  never  have 
claimed  for  himself,  because  he  had  the  Latin  salutatory 
at  Commencement. 

I  find  that  I  must  now  close  abruptly  without  adding 
anything  more,  or  I  shall  fail  to  mail  this  letter  of  excuse 
in  season  to  reach  you.  Please  make  my  apology  to  the 
Society  for  failing  to  furnish  them  with  such  a  letter  as 
they  ought  to  have  received,  and  believe  me,  yours, 

J.  W.  BRADBUEY. 

H.  W.  BRYANT,  ESQ.,  Sec'y  M.  H.  S. 


LETTER  FROM  HON.  ISRAEL  WASHBURN,  JR. 

EUREKA  SPRINGS,  ARK.,  February  9,  1882. 

MY  DEAR  MR.  BRYANT,  —  I  received  last  evening 
your  letter  of  the  3d  instant,  from  which  I  am  happy  to 
learn  that  the  Maine  Historical  Society  will  hold  on  the 
27th  instant,  being  the  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  the 
poet  Longfellow,  a  meeting  for  the  purpose  of  testifying 
their  appreciation  of  the  genius,  character,  and  works  of 
the  most  widely  known  and  illustrious  of  all  the  natives 
of  our  State. 

I  deeply  regret  that  I  cannot  be  present  on  that  occa 
sion  to  take  the  part  in  its  exercises  which  your  kind 
ness  has  suggested ;  but  I  am  here  in  attendance  on  an 
invalid  brother,  who  lias  come  to  these  waters  to  repair, 
if  it  may  be,  his  shattered  health.  I  see  no  prospect  of 
being  able  to  leave  him  in  season  to  be  present  at  this 
meeting. 

Maine  is  exceptionally  rich,  I  think,  in  great  and 
celebrated  names,  from  the  early  provincial  days,  when 
the  Americans  first  knighted  by  the  crown  of  Great 
Britain  were  those  natives  of  Maine,  —  Sir  William 
Phips,  a  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  and  Sir  William 
Pepperell,  the  hero  of  Louisburg, —  to  the  present  time. 
Among  these  memorable  men  may  be  mentioned  those 
heroes  upon  land  and  sea,  the  Prebles ;  those  states 
men  of  the  first  quarter  of  the  present  century,  Rufus, 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  131 

William,  and  Cyrus  King ;  and  the  statesmen  of  a  later 
period,  George  Evans,  a  Senator  of  the  United  States 
when  the  Senate  was  made  august  by  such  men  as 
Webster,  Clay,  and  Calhoun,  to  the  greatest  of  whom 
he  was  felt  by  his  associates  to  be  hardly  second ;  and 
William  Pitt  Fessenden,  also  a  Senator,  who  in  the  most 
exciting  debate  of  modern  times  convinced  his  oppo 
nents  that  the  Senate  contained  no  member  who  wielded 
a  more  dangerous  or  more  polished  blade.  Of  authors 
and  men  of  letters,  the  names  of  Nathaniel  P.  Willis, 
John  Neal,  Seba  Smith,  —  the  original  Jack  Downing, — 
Henry  B.  Smith,  and  Nathaniel  Deering  will  not  be  soon 
forgotten.  While,  of  life-time  residents,  or  of  those 
who  have  lived  long  enough  with  us  to  take  on  local 
shape  and  complexion,  or  who  have  consecrated  our  soil 
like  General  Knox,  by  leaving  their  ashes  to  be  mingled 
with  it,  we  point  proudly  to  Knox ;  to  Edward  Payson, 
the  theologian  and  preacher,  whose  fame  has  extended  to 
two  hemispheres  ;  and  to  Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  whose 
boyhood  was  passed  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Sebago,  and 
whose  later  youth  was  occupied  by  his  college  course  at 
Brunswick,  where  he  was  the  contemporary  of  Long 
fellow. 

But  among  all  these  names,  and  all  other  names,  we 
shall  not,  nor  will  posterity,  hesitate  to  assign  the 
supreme  place  which  will  make  our  State  to  be  longest 
remembered,  to  the  poet  whose  works,  genius,  and  life 
you  will  meet  to  recognize  and  honor. 

You  speak  of  a  probable  paper  by  Mr.  Goold  on  Gen 
eral  Wadsworth,  the  maternal  grandfather  of  the  poet, 
and  on  such  an  occasion  his  father  will  not  be  forgotten. 


132         HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

You  know  that  he  was  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  the 

State  in  his  day,  a  member  of  Congress,  a  learned  lawyer, 

an  eloquent  advocate,  known  by  his  contemporaries  as 

the  "  orator  of  the  silver  tongue,"  and  particularly  as  one 

"  Who  bore  without  abuse 

The  grand  old  name  of  gentleman." 

To  this  Society  the  interest  and  enjoyment  of  the 
occasion  will  be  enhanced  by  the  knowledge  that  the 
poet  has  never  lost  his  love  for  his  native  State,  and  that 
he  continues  to  take  a  lively  interest  in  her  people,  her 
history,  her  welfare,  and  her  honor. 
Very  truly  yours, 

ISRAEL  WASHBUEN,  JE. 
H.  W.  BEYAXT,  ESQ.,  Sec.  M.  II.  S. 

The  following  poem  by  Mr.  Washburn  accom 
panied  this  letter :  — 

TO  HENRY  W.  LONGFELLOW  ON  HIS  SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY. 

Lines  suggested  ~by  his  poem  "My  Lost  Youth" 

They  err  who  say  the  poet  dies, 

Or  suffers  foul  eclipse  ; 
Old  age  is  never  in  his  eyes, 

Nor  palsy  on  his  lips. 

Nature  and  love  and  truth  and  faith 

Know  no  black  biting  frost ; 
The  poet  feels  no  bated  breath, 

His  youth  is  never  lost. 

I.  W.,  JR. 


TRIBUTE  FROM  HON.  JOSEPH  WILLIAMSON. 

LEIGH  HUNT  pleasantly  says,  u  I  cannot  pass  through 
Westminster,  without  thinking  of  Milton ;  or  the  Bor 
ough,  without  thinking  of  Chaucer  or  Shakespeare ;  or 
Gray's  Inn,  without  calling  Bacon  to  mind ;  or  Blooms- 
bury  Square,  without  Steele  and  Aikenside."  A  similar 
impressiveness  attaches  to  any  locality  consecrated  by 
the  genius  of  him  whose  birthday  we  are  now  cele 
brating.  Not  to  go  beyond  his  native  State,  who  can 
approach  this  u  beautiful  town,  that  is  seated  by  the 
sea,"  and  look  upon  uthe  shadows  of  Deering's  Woods," 
or  wander  among  the  pines  of  Brunswick,  "that  mur 
mur  in  low  monotone,"  without  feeling  that  the  magic 
pen  of  the  poet  has  imparted  to  them  an  interest  which 
they  possessed  not  before  ? 

Assured  that  the  increase  of  years  will  give  a  value  to 
every  object  and  place  with  which  Longfellow  has  been 
associated,  I  beg  to  present  to  the  Society  some  memorials 
of  his  college  life :  a  view  of  the  halls  of  Bowdoin,  "  in 
whose  seclusion  and  repose"  his  fame  was  born,  and  a 
catalogue  of  the  institution,  published  sixty  years  ago 
this  month,  in  which  his  name  appears  as  an  humble 
Freshman. 

There  is  a  story  that  at  some  Sunday-school  exhibi 
tion  the  children  being  asked,  "  What  is  the  best  book  in 
the  world,  next  to  the  Bible,"  enthusiastically  replied, 


134        HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

"  Longfellow's  poems."  The  expression  of  popular  judg 
ment  finds  a  ready  response  among  many  persons  of  all 
ages :  not  only  with  those  who  delight  in  his  numerous 
short  poems,  but  with  those  who  dwell  upon  the  exquisite 
descriptions  of  Evangeline,  or  who  enjoy  the  marvelous 
translation  of  the  "  Divine  Comedy."  He  has  touched 
nothing  which  he  has  not  adorned.  While  immortal 
izing  scenes  in  his  own  country,  he  has  gathered  green 
wreaths  of  fame  from  the  mountains  of  Switzerland  and 
the  valleys  of  the  Rhine ;  and  painting  with  Homeric 
melody  the  homely  features  of  Acadian  life,  he  has  ren 
dered  classic  the  hospitable  shores  and  primeval  forests 
of  Nova  Scotia.  Who  has  given  to  the  world  so  many 
lines  of  poetic  beauty  and  refined  tenderness  of  feeling, 
and  yet  with  such  simplicity  of  style  that  they  have 
become  as  familiar  as  household  words  ?  Into  how 
many  saddened  hearts  have  they  not  proved  consolation  ? 
How  many  mourning  eyes  have  not  looked  up  with  a 
brightening  hope  from  the  pages  in  which  he  has  written 
such  hymns  of  resignation  ?  "  It  is  pleasant  to  re 
member,"  says  a  recent  writer,  "  that  in  all  the  variety 
of  subjects,  events,  and  emotions  that  Mr.  Longfellow 
has  treated  with  the  poet's  grace  and  art  there  is  not 
one  mean  sentiment  or  base  word.  Nobody  has  been 
misled  by  him  into  idleness,  or  license,  or  low  pleasure ; 
no  one  has  had  his  mind  debased  by  any  verse  that 
Mr.  Longfellow  ever  wrote."  There  is 

"  Not  one  immoral,  one  corrupted  thought, 

One  line  which,  dying,  he  could  wish  to  blot." 
His  great  influence  has  always  been  for  good  ;  he  has 
promoted  health  of  mind  and  spirit,  and  has  labored  in 


SEVENTY-FIFTH  BIRTHDAY.  135 

his  serene  way  for  the  well-being  and  well-doing  of  his 
race. 

"  Some  suck  up  poison  from  a  sorrow's  core, 
As  naught  but  night-shade  grew  upon  earth's  ground ; 
Love  turned  all  his  to  heart's-ease,  and  the  more 
Fate  tried  his  bastions,  she  but  found  a  door 
Leading  to  sweeter  manhood  and  more  sound." 

The  world  offers  no  record  of  a  poet's  life  and  work 
lovelier  than  that  of  Mr.  Longfellow.     ' 

"  Blessings  be  with  him,  and  eternal  praise, 
Who  gave  us  nobler  loves  and  nobler  cares  ; 
The  poets  who  on  earth  have  made  us  heirs 
Of  truth  and  pure  delight  by  heavenly  lays." 


PROCEEDINGS  OP   THE   SOCIETY  AT  ITS 
SPRING  MEETING. 

PORTLAND,   MAY   25,    1882. 


PEOCEEDINGS   OF    THE  SOCIETY  AT  ITS 
SPKING  MEETING. 


AT  the  meeting  of  the  Maine  Historical  Society, 
held  in  Portland,  May  25,  1882,  George  F.  Tal- 
bot,  Esq.,  presented  the  following  resolutions  com 
memorative  of  the  poet  Longfellow,  which  were 
adopted  and  ordered  to  be  recorded :  — 

Resolved,  That  the  Maine  Historical  Society,  honored 
in  counting  among  its  members  the  illustrious  poet, 
Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow,  lately  deceased,  desire  to 
join  their  fellow  countrymen  everywhere  in  paying  their 
tribute  of  gratitude  and  admiration  for  those  productions 
of  his  genius  which  have  made  his  name  immortal. 

Resolved,  That  while  death  has  removed  from  associa 
tion  with  living  men  his  revered  presence,  and,  so  far  as 
can  be  seen,  has  arrested  that  assiduous  labor  which  has 
so  enriched  the  pages  of  permanent  literature,  it  has  ex 
tended  his  fame,  and  brought  to  millions  who  had  not 
known  him  an  appreciation  of  the  nobility  of  his  nature 
and  the  purity  of  his  life. 

Resolved,  That  the  society  whose  office  it  is  to  cherish 
the  memory  of  the  men  of  Maine  who  in  literature, 


140         HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

science,  politics,  war,  business  enterprise,  and  the  inven 
tive  arts  have  shed  lustre  upon  our  history,  acknowledge 
the  indebtedness  of  our  citizens  to  Longfellow  for  the 
honor  his  long  and  brilliant  career  in  the  highest  depart 
ments  of  creative  art  has  conferred  upon  our  country,  and 
especially  upon  our  State  that  gave  him  birth. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  be  requested  to  com 
municate,  with  a  copy  of  these  resolutions,  the  respectful 
sympathy  of  this  society  to  the  family  of  the  distin 
guished  deceased. 

The  following  communication  was  received  from 
the  Hon.  James  W.  Bradbury,  the  President  of 
the  Society,  and  read  by  the  Secretary :  — 

Since  the  meeting  of  the  Maine  Historical  So 
ciety  on  the  27th  of  last  February,  in  honor  of 
Longfellow,  that  great  poet  has  ceased  to  live  on 
earth  except  in  history  and  in  the  hearts  of  the 
lovers  of  pure  literature  throughout  the  world. 

It  was  appropriate  that  this  society,  of  which  he 
was  a  member,  should  hold  that  meeting.  It  was 
the  seventy-fifth  anniversary  of  his  birth.  He  was 
invited  to  attend,  but  was  compelled  by  ill  health 
to  decline  the  invitation  in  one  of  the  last  letters 
he  probably  ever  wrote.  It  was  in  the  city  in 
which  he  was  born  and  reared  and  prepared  for 
college.  It  was  in  the  State  in  whose  oldest  col 
lege  he  received  his  collegiate  education,  —  the 
State  of  which  his  ancestors  were  distinguished 


/AT  ME  MORI  AM.  141 

citizens,  in  which  his  parents  were  born  and  lived 
and  died.  By  ancestry,  by  birth,  by  education, 
he  belongs  to  Maine.  She  can  justly  boast  that 
she  has  given  to  the  world  the  most  illustrious 
poet  of  the  age.  Genius  consecrates  the  place  of 
its  nativity.  Seven  cities  contended  for  the  honor 
of  having  been  the  birthplace  of  Homer  after  he 
was  dead,  who  while  living  was  allowed  to  wander 
in  poverty  through  their  streets.  It  would  have 
been  a  reproach  to  the  Historical  Society  of  the 
State  to  have  passed  such  an  occasion  unnoticed. 

The  services  of  that  meeting  were  appropriate 
and  interesting,  and  I  deeply  regretted  my  in 
ability  to  be  present.  Everything  that  has  rela 
tion  to  a  historical  personage,  and  especially  to 
one  who  has  secured  such  a  hold  upon  the  heart 
of  the  public  as  Longfellow,  becomes  a  matter  of 
general  interest.  I  was  exceedingly  gratified  by 
the  perusal  of  the  papers  read  on  that  occasion. 
The  introductory  address  by  Judge  Barrows,  the 
early  reminiscences  by  Professor  Packard,  the  his 
tory  of  the  Longfellow  family  by  the  Kev.  H.  S. 
Burrage,  the  history  of  the  Wadsworth  family, 
the  poet's  maternal  ancestors,  by  the  Hon.  Wil 
liam  Goold,  the  history  of  Portland  in  his  early 
days  by  Edward  H.  Elwell,  and  the  elaborate 
paper  upon  his  writings  by  Mr.  Talbot,  are  all 
worthy  of  preservation  and  publication. 


142        HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

I  have  been  requested  to  give  some  account  of 
my  early  recollections  of  Longfellow.  I  can  add 
very  little  to  what  I  communicated  to  the  Society 
on  a  former  occasion. 

I  met  him  for  the  first  time  in  the  autumn  of 
1822,  when  I  entered  as  Sophomore  the  class  of 
which  he  was  a  member.  As  we  both  had  our 
rooms  out  of  college  and  in  the  same  vicinity,  we 
were  often  together  in  passing  to  and  from  the 
recitation  room,  and  became  well  acquainted.  He 
was  genial,  sociable,  and  agreeable,  and  always  a 
gentleman  in  his  deportment.  Not  meditative  and 
shy,  like  his  subsequently  distinguished  classmate 
Hawthorne,  he  was  uniformly  cheerful.  He  had 
a  happy  temperament,  free  from  all  envy  and 
every  corroding  passion  or  vice. 

In  personal  appearance,  according  to  my  present 
recollection  of  him  as  I  recall  the  scenes  of  those 
early  days,  his  figure  was  slight  and  erect ;  his 
complexion  light  and  delicate  as  a  maiden's,  with 
a  slight  bloom  upon  the  cheek;  his  nose  rather 
prominent ;  his  eyes  clear  and  blue ;  and  his  well- 
formed  head  covered  with  a  profusion  of  light 
brown  hair,  waving  loosely  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  gray  locks  of  age.  I  have  seen  a  portrait 
in  his  parlor  in  Cambridge  that  gives  a  good  idea 
of  him  in  his  early  life  as  I  remember  him. 

While  he  was  understood  in  college  to  be  a  gen- 


IN  MEMORIAM.  143 

eral  reader,  and  more  especially  devoted  to  the 
Muses,  he  never  allowed  himself  to  come  to  the 
recitation  room  without  thorough  preparation.  I 
have  some  knowledge  that  he  found  more  diffi 
culty  in  mastering  the  hard  problems  in  the  higher 
branches  of  mathematics  than  he  did  in  any  of 
his  other  studies;  but  his  purpose  was  never  to 
fail.  His  class  was  one  in  which  there  was  a  large 
amount  of  ambition  and  an  intense  struggle  for 
rank  in  scholarship.  In  this  class,  Longfellow 
stood  justly  amongst  the  first.  At  Commencement 
he  was  assigned  one  of  the  three  English  orations ; 
the  valedictory,  being  the  highest  in  rank,  was 
received  by  his  older  and  able  scholarly  classmate, 
Little.  Gorham  Deane,  a  young  man  of  the  most 
remarkable  metaphysical  powers  I  have  ever 
known  for  one  of  his  age,  died  before  the  Com 
mencement.  I  have  recently  seen  a  letter  from 
President  Allen  to  his  father,  written  after  his 
death,  saying  that  he  ranked  second  in  his  class. 

In  that  small  recitation  room  we  had  Longfel 
low  and  Hawthorne  and  Cilley  and  Little  and 
Abbott  and  Cheever  sitting  side  by  side. 

The  curriculum  of  studies  in  Bowdoin  College 
was  at  that  time  much  more  restricted  than  is 
found  in  our  colleges  at  the  present  day.  But  the 
instruction  was  directed  and  calculated  to  teach 
the  student  to  use  his  own  mental  powers  rather 


144        HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

than  to  crowd  the  memory  with  the  learning  of 
others,  —  to  teach  him  to  think,  and  think  upon 
his  feet  rather  than  to  store  up  what  other  men 
had  thought.  We  had,  too,  such  instructors  as 
Cleaveland,  Upham,  Newman,  and  Packard,  and 
the  classes  were  brought  into  immediate  contact 
with  such  minds,  instead  of  being  turned  over  to 
young  tutors  for  that  which  is  most  essential  in 
college  training.  Our  most  distinguished  citizens 
were  intensely  loyal  to  the  State  and  its  literary 
institutions,  and  gave  such  encouragement  to  our 
colleges  as  to  command  for  them  the  confidence  of 
the  public  within  and  beyond  our  borders.  We 
had  in  our  class  the  sons  of  Judge  Bridge,  Simon 
Greenleaf,  Stephen  Longfellow,  Jeremiah  Mason, 
Chief  Justice  Mellen,  and  Commodore  Preble; 
and  in  the  preceding  class  were  Franklin  Pierce, 
William  Pitt  Fessenden,  and  Calvin  E.  Stowe. 

The  year  following  his  graduation,  Longfellow 
accepted  a  professorship  of  modern  languages,  in 
which,  by  his  careful  and  thorough  preparation  at 
home  and  abroad,  he  sustained  the  high  character 
of  which  his  early  life  gave  assurance. 

Some  eight  years  ago  I  was  travelling  across 
Nova  Scotia  from  Halifax  to  Annapolis.  At  Wind 
sor  a  gentleman  joined  me  in  the  cars,  who  soon 
engaged  in  conversation  about  the  old  Acadian 
settlement  that  was  so  cruelly  dispersed  by  the 


IN  MEMORIAM.  145 

•* 

English  authorities.  He  designated  the  site  of  the 
old  church  into  which  the  Acadians  were  crowded, 
and  from  which  they  were  taken  to  be  scattered 
and  severed  without  regard  to  family  ties ;  and 
pointed  out  Grand  Pre,  where  they  farmed.  He 
soon  spoke  of  Longfellow's  "  Evangeline."  He 
said  that  the  character  that  Longfellow  gave  the 
Acadians  was  literally  true ;  there  was  no  poetic 
exaggeration  about  it.  He  was  so  enthusiastic 
over  Longfellow  that  it  was  difficult  to  determine 
which  he  admired  most,  the  Acadians  or  the  poem. 
We  concluded  that  he  was  a  descendant  of  some 
of  the  few  who  escaped  the  dispersion. 

It  was  with  reluctance  that  Longfellow  consent 
ed  to  deliver  his  "  Morituri  Salutamus"  address  be 
fore  the  Alumni,  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his 
graduation.  I  had  applied  to  him  personally,  two 
or  three  years  previous,  to  meet  the  survivors  of 
his  class  at  Commencement ;  but  he  told  me  there 
had  been  so  many  changes  since  his  residence  at 
Brunswick  that  he  feared  the  effect  upon  him  of 
revisiting  those  scenes.  We  renewed  the  effort  in 
1875,  and  obtained  the  assurance,  through  the  per 
sistent  efforts  of  Mr.  Benson,  that  all  the  survivors 
would  be  present,  and  Longfellow  finally  consented 
to  come  and  Deliver  a  poem.  I  called  upon  him 
in  May.  His  health  was  impaired ;  but  he  told 
me  he  had  prepared  his  poem,  and  hoped  that  he 
10 


146        HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

should  be  able  to  be  present  and  read  it  at  the 
time  appointed. 

The  announcement  that  Longfellow  was  to  be 
present  and  deliver  a  poem  before  the  Alumni  the 
day  preceding  Commencement,  brought  together 
at  Brunswick  a  large  audience  from  all  parts  of 
the  State.  When  the  day  arrived,  as  soon  as  the 
doors  of  the  large  church  were  opened,  the  house 
was  literally  jammed,  and  every  space  for  sitting 
and  standing  was  filled.  The  survivors  of  the 
class,  eleven  in  number  (two  having  been  accident 
ally  prevented  from  being  present),  who  had  been 
graduated  fifty  years  before,  with  their  venerable 
instructor  at  their  head,  were  seated  upon  the 
stage  to  the  left  of  the  speaker,  when  Longfellow, 
after  the  impressive  introductory  services,  arose, 
and  in  his  modest  and  graceful  manner  read  that 
poetic  address  of  which  Virgil  might  have  felt 
proud,  "Morituri  Salutamus."  The  audience  was 
delighted. 

His  feeling  allusion  to  his  old  instructors  and  to 
Professor  Packard  touched  the  deepest  sensibilities 
of  his  hearers  :  — 

"  They  are  no  longer  here  ;  they  are  all  gone 
Into  the  land  of  shadows,  —  all  save  one. 
Honor  and  reverence,  and  the  good  repute 
That  follows  faithful  service  as  its  fruit, 
Be  unto  him,  whom  living  we  salute." 


IN  MEMORIAM.  147 

When  the  great  poet  turned  and  gracefully 
bowed  his  salutation  to  his  aged  and  venerable, 
yet  fresh  and  elegant  instructor,  the  whole  audi 
ence  was  moved  with  emotion. 

As  soon  as  the  applause  that  followed  the  con 
clusion  of  the  address  would  permit,  it  devolved 
upon  me  to  offer  a  vote  of  thanks,  and  I  pro 
posed  that  the  thanks  of  the  Alumni  be  tendered 
to  Mr.  Longfellow  for  his  eloquent  poetic  address, 
and  the  thanks  of  the  college  and  its  friends  that 
the  most  illustrious  American  poet  had  brought 
the  laurels  nobly  won  in  the  Old  World  and  the 
New,  and  gracefully  placed  them  upon  the  brow 
of  his  Alma  Mater.  The  president  of  the  Alumni, 
on  putting  the  vote,  said  to  the  audience  that  in 
the  republic  of  letters  the  ladies  can  vote,  and 
those  in  favor  of  the  resolution  would  manifest 
it  by  rising.  Instantly  the  whole  audience  were 
upon  their  feet,  and  the  poet  received  such  an 
ovation  of  applause  as  can  never  be  forgotten  by 
those  who  witnessed  it. 

Dr.  Cheever  delivered  an  oration  on  the  occa 
sion,  which  was  characterized  by  his  usual  great 
learning  and  ability.  At  the  Commencement  din 
ner,  Mr.  Abbott  gave  a  history  of  all  the  deceased 
members  of  the  class  of  1825,  which  was  written 
in  his  accustomed  felicitous  style,  and  in  which  he 
rigidly  adhered  to  the  maxim,  "  De  mortuis  nil 


148        HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

nisi  bonum."  In  the  evening  a  large  company, 
embracing  many  distinguished  persons,  met  Long 
fellow  at  the  hospitable  mansion  of  Professor 
Packard,  when  he  received  cordial  greetings  from 
friends  from  every  part  of  the  State.  On  the  fol 
lowing  morning  we  assembled  around  the  historic 
tree,  and  repaired  thence  to  a  room  in  the  college, 
and  after  a  most  impressive  prayer  by  the  good 
Dr.  Shepley  we  parted.  In  letters  subsequently 
received  from  Longfellow  he  spoke  of  his  visit 
to  Brunswick  and  meeting  so  many  of  his  old  col 
lege  friends.  I  saw  him  in  1877,  when  he  alluded 
to  this  visit  with  evident  satisfaction. 

It  was  my  intention  to  speak  of  the  character  of 
the  writings  of  Longfellow,  but  that  subject  is  too 
broad  for  casual  remarks,  and  sudden  illness  has 
deprived  me  of  the  power  of  making  any  prepara 
tion.  I  must  therefore  dismiss  it  with  the  single 
allusion  to  his  good  fortune  as  an  author.  He 
must  be  ranked  as  the  most  fortunate  of  authors, 
with  hardly  a  parallel  in  history.  His  genius 
brought  him  fame  and  competence  early  in  life, 
and  he  lived  long  to  enjoy  both,  unclouded  by  any 
feeling  of  envy  toward  his  distinguished  contem 
poraries.  He  could  enjoy  the  fame  of  Bryant  and 
Whittier  and  Tennyson,  as  if  it  were  a  tribute  to 
the  work  in  which  he  and  they  were  alike  en 
gaged.  But  for  the  sad  domestic  calamity  that 


IN  MEMORIAM.  149 

befell  him,  his  lot  in  life  would  seem  to  have  been 
too  happy  for  mortals  here. 

Mr.  Hubbard  Winslow  Bryant,  the  Librarian 
and  Secretary  of  the  Society,  then  offered  the  fol 
lowing  :  — 

I  desire  to  lay  a  wreath  on  the  tomb  of  our  be 
loved  poet,  and  to  testify  with  others  to  his  endear 
ing  qualities.  I  have  had  the  honor  of  his  friend 
ship  for  several  years,  and  it  was  rny  privilege  to 
be  useful  to  him  occasionally  as  a  book-hunter.  I 
first  called  his  attention  to  the  little  pamphlet,  the 
Fourth  of  July  oration  delivered  by  his  honored 
father,  Esquire  Longfellow,  in  1804,  which  he  had 
never  before  seen.  I  procured  for  him,  also,  at 
different  times,  some  of  the  early  writings  of  our 
American  authors. 

Mr.  Longfellow  liked  much  to  examine  collec 
tions  of  odds  and  ends  in  literature.  It  was  a 
pleasure  to  him  to  chance  upon  some  little  book  of 
poems  or  fiction  that  had  been  printed,  forgotten, 
and  finally  brought  to  the  light  again.  After  the 
removal  of  our  library  to  this  city  he  wrote,  con 
gratulating  us  upon  it,  and  expressing  his  best 
wishes  for  our  prosperity.  When  visiting  here  in 
August  last  he  passed  an  hour  or  two  in  our  library, 
examining  the  shelves  and  cabinet  with  evident 


150        HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

satisfaction.  He  presented  us  with  the  moccasins 
worn  by  the  Sioux  warrior,  Rain-in-the-Face,  who 
killed  General  Ouster.  They  were  sent  to  him  by 
General  Miles  in  acknowledgment  of  Longfellow's 
poem,  "  The  Revenge  of  Rain-in-the  Face  :  " 

"  In  that  desolate  land  and  lone, 
Where  the  Big  Horn  and  Yellowstone 

Roar  down  their  mountain  path, 
By  their  fires  the  Sioux  Chiefs 
Muttered  their  woes  and  griefs 
And  the  menace  of  their  wrath." 

They  are  accompanied  by  the  photograph  of  the 
Indian  chief,  who  has  rather  an  amiable  counte 
nance.  His  name  was  evidently  given  him  on  ac 
count  of  a  line  of  dots  or  raindrops  on  his  left 
cheek. 

Mr.  Longfellow's  taste  in  the  printing  and  illus 
tration  of  books  was  superlative.  The  early  num 
bers  of  "  Outre-Mer,"  printed  under  his  personal 
supervision  at  Brunswick,  are  very  handsome  ;  he 
loved  to  see  "  a  rivulet  of  text  running  through 
a  meadow  of  margin." 

At  his  request  I  made  search  for  the  date  of 
the  storm  which  inspired  his  "  Wreck  of  the  Hes 
perus,"  and  found  that  it  occurred  on  Sunday, 
15th  December,  1839.  It  was  a  local  storm, 
which  spent  its  force  in  Massachusetts  Bay.  The 
fishermen  at  anchor  in  Gloucester  harbor  suffered 


IN  ME  MORI  AM.  151 

most ;  some  fifty  lives  were  lost.  The  schooner 
Hesperus  hailed  from  Gardiner,  Maine. 

When  Professor  Longfellow  was  here  last  sum 
mer  he  intimated  that  he  possessed  an  invaluable 
relic  in  a  lock  of  Washington's  hair,  which  he 
would  some  day  present  to  our  Society.  I  am  au 
thorized  by  his  son,  Mr.  Ernest  W.  Longfellow,  to 
state  that  this  precious  relic  will  be  presented  to 
us  on  some  future  occasion. 

Longfellow's  first  printed  poem  is  believed  to 
be  a  ballad  on  the  subject  of  Lovewell's  Fight. 
This  we  have  searched  for,  but  as  yet  in  vain.  I 
believe  that  it  contains  these  lines,  but  it  is  pos 
sible  they  may  be  from  some  other  author,  as 
there  have  been  a  number  of  ballads  on  the  same 
theme :  — 

"  I  '11  kill  you,  Chamberlain,  said  he, 
And  scalp  you  when  you  're  dead." 

It  was  probably  printed  between  the  years 
1823  and  1825,  and  perhaps  in  some  weekly  paper 
that  had  a  short  life. 

A  friend  has  kindly  called  my  attention  to  an 
ode  by  Longfellow  on  the  same  subject,  which 
appeared  in  the  "  Gazette  of  Maine  "  for  May  24, 
1825:  — 


152        HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 


THE  COMMEMORATION  AT  FRYEBURG. 

The  following  ode  was  written  for  the  occasion  by 
Mr.  H.  W.  Longfellow,  of  Bowdoin  College  :  — 

ODE. 

Air  —  Bruce 's  Address. 

I. 

Many  a  day  and  wasted  year 
Bright  has  left  its  footsteps  here, 
Since  was  broken  the  warrior's  spear, 

And  our  fathers  bled. 
Still  the  tall  trees,  arching,  shake 
Where  the  fleet  deer  by  the  lake, 
As  he  dash'd  through  birch  and  brake, 

From  the  hunter  fled. 

IT. 

In  these  ancient  woods  so  bright, 
That  are  full  of  life  and  light, 
Many  a  dark,  mysterious  rite 

The  stern  warriors  kept. 
But  their  altars  are  bereft, 
Fall'n  to  earth,  and  strewn  and  cleft, 
And  a  holier  faith  is  left 

Where  their  fathers  slept. 

in. 

From  their  ancient  sepulchres, 
Where  amid  the  giant  firs, 


IN  MEMORIAM.  153 

Moaning  loud,  the  high  wind  stirs, 

Have  the  red  men  gone. 
Tow'rd  the  setting  sun  that  makes 
Bright  our  western  hills  and  lakes, 
Faint  and  few,  the  remnant  takes 

Its  sad  journey  on. 

IV. 

Where  the  Indian  hamlet  stood, 
In  the  interminable  wood, 
Battle  broke  the  solitude, 

And  the  war-cry  rose  ; 
Sudden  came  the  straggling  shot 
Where  the  sun  looked  on  the  spot 
That  the  trace  of  war  would  blot 

Ere  the  day's  faint  close. 

v. 

Low  the  smoke  of  battle  hung ; 
Heavy  down  the  lake  it  swung, 
Till  the  death  wail  loud  was  sung 

When  the  night  shades  fell ; 
And  the  green  pine,  waving  dark, 
Held  within  its  shattered  bark 
Many  a  lasting  scathe  and  mark, 

That  a  tale  could  tell. 

VI. 

And  the  story  of  that  day 
Shall  not  pass  from  earth  away, 


154        HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

Nor  the  blighting  of  decay 

Waste  our  liberty ; 
But  within  the  river's  sweep 
Long  in  peace  our  vale  shall  sleep, 
And  free  hearts  the  record  keep 

Of  this  jubilee. 

Hon.  Israel  Washburn,  Jr.,  said  that  at  a  re 
cent  meeting  of  some  of  our  citizens  the  question 
of  erecting  a  monument  in  Portland  to  the  mem 
ory  of  the  poet  had  been  considered  and  he 
thought  it  would  be  fitting  for  this  Society  to 
unite  with  the  people  of  the  city  in  such  measures 
as  they  might  in  common  agree  upon,  to  carry 
such  a  purpose  into  effect,  showing  thereby  that 
not  his  native  city  only,  but  his  native  State  as 
well,  desires  to  have  part  in  a  work  so  honorable 
to  both  as  this  would  be. 

The  most  illustrious  of  all  the  sons  of  Maine, 
Longfellow  did  not  need  the  monument.  His 
fame  was  already  assured,  not  in  this  country 
alone,  but  in  every  civilized  land  on  the  globe. 
His  genius  required  no  such  voucher.  Genius 
had,  indeed,  many  definitions,  — he  would  not 
stop  to  analyze  or  describe  them,  —  and  Longfel 
low  would  not  come  within  them  all ;  but  he  did 
not  doubt  that  in  those  which  were  plainest  and 
most  universally  accepted,  and  such  as  best  dis 
tinguished  the  immortal  poets  of  all  ages,  —  God's 


IN  MEMORIAM.  155 

great,  like  Shakespeare  and  Burns,  —  he  would  be 
easily  included  ;  for,  like  them,  he  sang  of  man  and 
of  life  —  of  their  nearest,  deepest,  and  highest  re 
lations  —  in  words  that  the  world  could  not  choose 
but  hear,  and  would  never  forget.  How  many  of 
his  lines  were  mottoes  of  the  heart !  How  many 
passages  of  his  verse  lifted  the  mind  to  its  highest 
moods !  He  was  nature's  simplest  and  truest 
bard ;  no  unintelligible  metaphysician  nor  "  howl 
ing  dervish  "  of  song,  and  yet  how  full  his  poems 
were  of  deep  philosophy  !  True,  it  was  philoso 
phy  which  men  did  not  stare  at  or  worry  them 
selves  to  find  out ;  for  his  stream  was  clear,  not 
because  it  was  shallow,  but  because,  while  deep, 
it  was  not  turbid. 

But  his  genius  was  most  distinguished  in  the 
highest  things,  —  in  the  true  expression  of  all  that 
was  pure  and  sweet,  honest  and  of  good  report,  of 
what  was  gentlest  yet  strongest,  most  human  yet 
the  most  divine.  And  no  man  had  such  a  genius  in 
the  art,  so  to  speak,  of  being  a  gentleman.  Only 
Emerson  came  near  him.  His  native  State  would 
do  herself  a  kindness,  he  said,  by  thus  testifying 
to  her  appreciation  of  the  genius  of  her  great 
son,  and  by  cherishing  his  memory.  And  this 
Society  should  hold  up  his  example  and  his  works 
for  the  benefit  of  the  people  of  the  State,  —  the 
men,  women,  and  children  of  the  present  age  and 


156        HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

of  the  ages  which  are  to  come.  In  no  way  could 
it  better  do  its  best  work,  or  make  a  more  lasting 
claim  upon  the  gratitude  of  the  future. 

On  motion,  it  was  voted  to  adopt  and  publish 
in  the  proceedings  of  this  Society  at  the  meeting 
to  celebrate  the  seventy-fifth  birthday  of  the  poet 
Longfellow  the  addresses  delivered  at  the  memo 
rial  service  held  in  the  First  Parish  Church,  Port 
land,  Sunday  evening,  April  2, 1882,  by  the  pastor, 
the  Kev.  Thomas  Hill,  D.  D.,  the  Rev.  Asa  Dalton, 
and  the  Hon.  Joseph  W.  Symonds. 


REV.   DR.   HILL'S  ADDRESS. 

THE  four  elements,  talent,  fortune,  industry,  and 
inspiration,  which  must  combine  to  produce  the 
highest  success  in  life  were  all  conspicuous  in 
the  poet  whom  our  city  delights  to  claim  and  to 
honor.  The  inheritor,  or  at  least  the  recipient 
from  nature,  of  fine  powers,  he  had  favorable  op 
portunities  for  cultivating  and  developing  them ; 
but,  what  is  far  more  important,  he  opened  his 
heart  devoutly  and  reverently  to  holy  influences, 
and  gave  himself  with  steadfast,  conscientious  in 
dustry  to  the  improvement  of  his  opportunities, 
and  to  the  exercise  of  his  powers.  To  such  a  man 
all  circumstances  become,  as  it  were,  favorable ; 
he  is,  in  great  measure,  independent  of  fortune ; 
he  increases  his  native  talent ;  and  he  insures  the 
cooperation  of  that  Inspiring  Presence  which  is  al 
ways  ready  to  enter  the  heart  opened  to  receive  it. 

It  is  this  peculiar  moral  nobility  which  has  given 
our  poet  so  strong  a  hold  on  the  affection  and  re 
spect  of  all  who  know  him,  either  personally  or 
by  report  and  tradition.  His  seniors  and  equals 
in  age  bear  testimony  that  from  his,  boyhood  he 


158        HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

held  to  his  earnest  purposes ;  he  left  nothing  be 
hind  him  to  be  regretted,  —  nothing  to  be  covered 
with  a  veil.  The  devout  solemnity  of  that  early 
Psalm,  — 

"  Life  is  real !    Life  is  earnest ! "  — 

was  nothing  assumed  or  put  on ;  it  was  no  surface 
emotion,  expending  itself  in  words ;  it  was  a  deep, 
inward  choice  of  the  way  of  duty,  manifesting  it 
self  in  a  course  of  steadfast  fidelity  to  the  precepts 
of  Jesus,  from  his  youth  to  his  old  age.  Duty  is 
not  satisfied  with  professions  or  with  promises; 
it  demands  an  unconditional,  total  surrender  of  the 
whole  man  and  the  whole  life  to  the  eternal  prin 
ciples  of  piety,  righteousness,  and  love.  To  this 
demand  he  unceasingly  yielded  his  reverent  obe 
dience.  It  seemed  as  though  he  had  secretly  said 
to  himself,  — 

"  That  I  am  true  my  life  alone  can  show ; 
My  words  are  all  unequal  to  the  task." 

All  that  is  told  us  of  his  .private  life  confirms  us  in 
this  view  of  the  practical  reality  of  his  religion ; 
and  all  his  published  writings  bear  witness  to  it. 
It  is  not  simply  their  innocence,  the  absence  of 
lines  which  on  his  death-bed  he  might  wish  to 
erase  ;  it  is  the  unconscious  betrayal,  in  every  part, 
of  the  writer's  own  moral  earnestness.  The  deep 
est  fountains  of  his  heart  were  opened  early,  by 
great  sorrows ;  but  the  streams  which  issued  were 


IN  MEMORIAM.  159 

clear  and  life-giving.  The  flow  often  begins  from 
a  vein  of  sadness,  but  it  never  degenerates  into 
melancholy ;  and  almost  invariably  ends  with 
hope,  faith,  and  charity.  Those  blessed  Christian 
graces  were  the  characteristics  of  his  soul. 

And  it  was  this  moral  earnestness  which  (in 
combination  with  his  sweet,  courteous  dignity  and 
his  exceptionally  high  attainments  as  a  scholar 
and  achievements  as  a  writer)  made  him  so  valua 
ble  as  a  teacher;  first  in  his  Alma  Mater,  and 
afterwards  in  the  chair  at  Cambridge,  where  his 
services  and  fame  outshone  the  glory  of  his  re 
markable  predecessor  and  of  his  highly  gifted  suc 
cessor.  The  young  men  who  met  him  were  as 
much  impressed  and  inspired  by  the  moral  influ 
ences  which  flowed  unconsciously  from  his  pres 
ence  as  by  the  direct  teaching  in  his  class-room. 
No  wonder  that  the  Alumni  of  both  institutions 
have  desired  to  take  part  in  these  solemn  services 
of  thanksgiving  for  his  life  and  labors,  and  for 
the  inspiration  which  has  left  us  such  valuable 
fruits,  for  our  inheritance  and  that  of  our  chil 
dren.  For,  through  the  grace  that  was  given  him, 
he  has  left  a  precious  legacy  to  many  succeeding 
generations. 


JUDGE  SYMONDS'   ADDRESS. 

IT  has  fallen  to  me  somewhat  suddenly  to  take 
a  brief  part  in  this  memorial  service,  speaking 
for  the  resident  Alumni  of  Bowdoin. 

It  would  perhaps  be  strange  if  the  Alumni  of 
the  college  in  which  the  intellectual  life  of  Long 
fellow  began,  "  and  to  which  his  name  imparts 
charm  and  illustration/'  were  to  remain  in  willing 
silence  among  those  who  are  met  in  memory  of 
the  most  illustrious  of  her  sons,  standing  as  it 
were  just  within  the  sudden  darkness  which  has 
followed  the  sunset  of  his  life.  And  yet,  what  is 
there  for  them  to  do  ;  —  what  is  there  for  the 
college  to  do  now,  with  a  heart  brimming  with 
proud  and  grateful  emotions,  better  than  to  sit 
down  in  her  sorrow  for  the  dead,  and  to  offer  the 
golden  tribute  of  silence,  of  gratitude  and  thanks, 
for  the  life  that  has  closed,  for  the  peerless  and 
priceless  legacy  his  genius  and  fame  have  left  to 
her. 

To  the  graduates  of  Bowdoin  (as  of  other  col 
leges),  who  sometimes  in  later  life  go  back  in  a  sort 
of  enchantment  of  memory  and  the  imagination 


IN  MEMOR1AM.  161 

to  the  pleasant  years  passed  there,  —  to  some  of 
them,  at  least,  there  is  always  a  halo  about  the  col 
lege.  There  are  other  associations,  too,  connected 
with  it,  of  more  or  less  interest  to  all.  But  that 
Longfellow  and  Hawthorne,  —  Hawthorne,  whose 
genius  Longfellow  was  among  the  first  to  recog 
nize,  sending  a  ray  of  joy  and  sunlight  into  the 
darkness  of  his  long  seclusion  by  that  kindly  and 
appreciative  notice  of  the  "  Twice-Told  Tales,"  in 
the  "North  American  Review"  in  1837,  —  that 
the  footsteps  of  these  two  men,  in  youth  and  early 
manhood,  were  accustomed  to  loiter  there,  these 
are  associations  which  will  linger  imperishably, 
growing  richer  and  stronger  as  something  of  the 
interest  and  charm  of  antiquity  shall  gather  about 
the  college.  It  is  not  for  me  to  speak  in  fitting 
terms  of  Longfellow's  poetry,  of  its  manifold  and 
exceeding  beauty,  in  spirit,  in  substance  and  form, 
or  of  the  marvels  of  his  achievement.  His  poems 
seem  to  me  to  be  the  best  life,  the  highest  and 
purest  aspiration,  the  graceful  and  strong  expres 
sion  of  a  serene  and  noble  mind.  We  read  them, 
and  all  common  things  appear  in  a  finer  light. 
There  is  a  new  beauty  in  human  life,  a  new  glory 
on  the  earth  and  in  the  heavens.  The  round  of 
daily  duties  is  no  longer  sordid  or  dull.  The  op 
portunity,  the  possibility  for  ourselves,  whatever 

it  may  be,  we  learn  to  set  a  new  value  upon  it, 
11 


162        HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

to  estimate  it  at  its  best,  perhaps  to  prize  it  above 
gold. 

One  of  the  fragments  which  remain  of  the 
Twelve  Tables  of  the  Eoman  law  provides  that 
those  qualities  by  which  the  heroes  were  deified, 
virtue,  piety,  fidelity,  shall  be  ranked  among  the 
divinities.  Temples  shall  be  erected  to  them.  But 
let  no  worship  ever  be  paid  to  any  vice.  The 
pristine  Roman  vigor  and  purity  are  in  that  law. 
But  the  altars  to  these  same  divinities  are  sacred 
still  in  Longfellow's  verse,  and  a  holier  fire  burns 
upon  them  forever. 

What  an  assured  immortality  of  fame  is  his! 
His  works  are  already  the  inheritance  of  the  whole 
earth.  Transcending  the  boundaries  of  nations, 
they  have  become  the  common  property  of  man 
kind  ;  common  as  the  light  of  day  is  common,  or 
the  glory  of  the  sunset,  or  the  stars  at  night.  His 
is  the  life  of  books,  —  the  long  life  of  the  best 
books;  and  that  is  immortality. 

"  How  instantly  the  air  will  close  on  this  arrowy 
path !  "  once  Eufus  Choate  exclaimed,  alluding  to 
his  own  professional  career,  brilliant  as  it  was. 
And  in  his  beautiful  journal  of  travel  he  writes, 
66  Some  memorial  I  would  leave  yet,  rescued  from 
the  grave  of  a  mere  professional  man,  —  some 
wise,  or  beautiful,  or  interesting  page.  After  all,  a 
book  is  the  only  immortality." 


IN  MEMOPJAM.  163 

"  It  is  only  letters/'  said  Lord  Bacon,  "  which, 
as  ships,  pass  through  the  vast  sea  of  time." 

Something  of  the  subtle  quality  of  eloquence  is 
born  of  the  moment  and  expires  with  it.  Part  of 
the  great  occasion,  it  cannot  be  reproduced.  Of 
those  arts  imperial,  by  which  in  great  crises  the 
emotions  of  the  hour  and  the  judgments  of  men 
are  swayed  by  public  speaking,  only  the  great 
myth  can  be  transmitted  to  posterity. 

I  am  reminded  of  the  language  of  an  author,  by 
whom  this  contrast  has  been  strikingly  painted. 
He  says,  "  The  written  outlives  and  outdazzles 
the  spoken  word.  The  life  of  rhetoric  perishes 
with  the  rhetorician.  .  .  .  The  bows  of  eloquence 
are  buried  with  the  archers.  Where  is  the  splen 
did  declamation  of  Bolingbroke  ?  It  has  vanished, 
like  his  own  image  from  the  grass-plots  of  Twick 
enham. 

"  Literature  is  the  immortality  of  speech.  It  em 
balms  for  all  ages  the  departed  kings  of  learning, 
and  watches  over  their  repose  in  the  eternal  pyra 
mids  of  fame.  The  sumptuous  cities  which  have 
lighted  the  world  since  the  beginning  of  time  are 
now  beheld  only  in  the  pictures  of  the  historian 
or  the  poet.  Homer  rebuilds  Troy,  and  Thucyd- 
ides  renews  the  war  of  Peloponnesus.  The  dart 
that  pierced  the  Persian  breastplate  moulders  in 
the  dust  of  Marathon ;  but  the  arrow  of  Pindar 
quivers,  at  this  hour,  with  the  life  of  his  bow." 


164        HENRY    WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

Two  thousand  years  and  more  ago,  twenty-four 
centuries  ago,  and  the  arrow  of  Pindar  still  quiv 
ers  with  the  life  of  his  bow. 

It  will  be  well  for  the  world,  for  the  happiness 
and  nobility  of  mankind,  if  the  costly  grace  and 
spiritual  beauty  of  Longfellow's  poetry  shall  con 
tinue  to  be  familiar  as  household  words,  two  thou 
sand  years  to  come ;  yes,  when  lights  of  empire 
have  died  out,  "  like  embers  on  a  cottager's 
hearth." 


REV.   MR.   DALTON'S  ADDRESS. 

THE  ancients  regarded  the  city  of  a  man's  birth 
as  his  mother,  whom  he  was  bound  to  love,  serve, 
and  obey  by  his  life  and  his  works.  As  such,  the 
city  claimed  the  right  to  award  him  suitable  hon 
ors  while  he  lived,  and  to  pronounce  his  final  eu 
logy  immediately  after  death.  This  custom  was 
honored  by  careful  observance,  and  was  believed 
to  be  due  equally  to  the  departed  and  to  his 
surviving  friends  and  fellow  citizens.  To  the  de 
parted,  it  was  a  tribute  of  love  and  gratitude,  mer 
ited  by  the  services  he  had  rendered  his  native 
city  in  its  corporate  capacity,  as  well  as  to  the  in 
dividual  citizens.  To  his  fellow  citizens,  it  was  also 
an  indirect  but  efficient  call  to  follow  in  his  steps, 
at  least  in  intent  and  spirit,  so  far  as  possible,  by 
emulating  his  example  of  well-doing,  and  striving 
to  excel  in  their  several  conditions  and  callings. 

And  such  is  the  occasion  of  our  meeting  to 
night,  and  of  this  memorial  service.  Portland 
claims  the  great  poet  whom  we  have  lost  as  the 
brightest  and  best  of  all  her  sons.  The  city  was 
proud  of  him  and  loved  him  while  he  lived,  and 


166        HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

now  that  he  is  dead  she  is,  after  his  immediate 
family,  the  chief  mourner  at  his  grave,  and  most 
deeply  feels  of  how  great  a  son  she  is  bereaved. 
His  name  and  fame  are  indissolubly  connected 
with  this  city  by  the  sea.  And  Portland's  mother- 
heart  will  not  rest  satisfied  until  she  erect  in  "  The 
Oaks  "  an  enduring  monument  to  his  memory,  — 
a  statue  of  the  poet,  —  by  which  his  form  and 
features  may  be  familiar  to  future  generations. 

Longfellow's  life  divides  itself  into  three  parts  : 
his  youth  and  early  manhood  till  he  was  thirty 
years  of  age,  a  period  of  preparation  and  constant 
improvement;  his  ripe  manhood,  from  thirty  to 
sixty,  a  period  of  active  labor,  when  his  best  work 
was  done  ;  and  from  sixty  to  seventy-five,  a  period 
of  calm  repose  and  advancing  old  age,  when  he 
was  the  object  of  his  countrymen's  warm  admira 
tion  and  affection.  He  was  about  forty,  in  the 
prime  of  manhood,  when  the  speaker  knew  him  in 
college,  where  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  depart 
ment  of  Modern  Languages  and  Literature,  direct 
ing  the  teachers  of  French,  German,  Italian,  and 
Spanish,  and  occasionally  himself  teaching  all  these 
classes,  to  the  great  gratification  of  the  students. 

James  Russell  Lowell,  the  successor  of  Long 
fellow  at  Harvard,  once  said  to  Dr.  Hill,  that,  for 
his  part,  he  still  held  to  the  Ptolemaic  system,  in 
asmuch  as  it  makes  the  earth  the  centre  of  the 


IN  MEMOR1AM.  167 

universe,  and  man  the  chief  of  God's  works,  —  a 
sentiment  which  science  goes  far  to  confirm,  as 
Lowell  meant  it.  Our  little  planet  seems  to  offer 
the  most  favorable  conditions  for  the  highest 
forms  of  life  and  the  highest  type  of  beings. 
And  as  man  is  the  chief  end  of  creation,  so  the 
poet  is  the  highest  type  of  man,  rarer  in  his  ap 
pearance  among  men,  and  essaying  a  higher  flight 
than  his  fellows. 

Literature  in  general  must  be  preferred  even  to 
science,  for  the  same  reason,  namely,  because  its 
province  is  human  life  with  its  possibilities.  Lit 
erature  is  the  sum  and  substance  of  human  life 
in  all  its  aspects,  expressed  and  perpetuated  in 
"  thoughts  that  breathe  and  words  that  burn." 
It  includes  all  that  is  thrilling  in  eloquence, 
profound  in  philosophy,  permanent  in  morality, 
and  instructive  in  history,  no  less  than  the  charms 
of  poetry,  the  strange  in  romance,  the  mirthful 
in  comedy,  and  the  terrible  in  tragedy.  Great  and 
noble  thoughts,  clearly  enunciated  and  adorned 
by  graceful  and  varied  imagery,  are  the  highest 
style  of  literature,  and  constitute  true  and  per 
manent  poetry.  Philosophers,  divines,  historians 
and  orators  have  made  mankind  their  debtors  by 
masterpieces  of  eloquence,  but  not  in  the  same 
degree  as  the  great  poets,  ancient  and  modern. 
The  form  at  least  of  philosophy,  theology,  history, 


168        HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. 

and  oratory,  changes  from  age  to  age.  But  poetry 
is  a  perennial  spring  whose  waters  never  fail  to 
quench  the  thirst  of  the  soul.  Homer,  Sophocles, 
Virgil,  Horace,  Dante,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  Words 
worth,  are  as  fresh  and  refreshing  to-day  as  in 
the  ages  which  first  listened  to  the  music  of  their 
verse.  To  hold  communion  with  these  great  sing 
ers  through  their  masterpieces  is  the  privilege  of 
all,  and  is  possible  to  all.  By  doing  so  the  taste 
is  refined,  the  heart  purified,  the  imagination  ex 
alted,  and  the  whole  man  lifted  to  a  higher  plane 
of  feeling,  thinking,  and  being. 

And  now  what  we  claim  for  our  Longfellow  is, 
that  he  belongs  to  this  glorious  band  of  immortal 
bards,  whose  procession,  as  seen  by  Dante,  he  has 
gone  to  join,  and  by  whom,  we  doubt  not,  he  has 
been  recognized,  and  received  into  their  select  so 
ciety  as  one  of  themselves,  "  a  brother  beloved." 

Intanto  voce  fu  per  me  udita, 
"  Onorate  1'altissimo  poeta." 

If  you  ask  us  for  the  grounds  of  this  belief,  our 
reply  is  that  made  to  those  who  in  St.  Paul's  ask 
for  the  monument  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren : 
Circumspice,  "  Look  around  you ;  "  and  on  every 
side,  all  over  the  world,  wherever  the  English 
tongue  is  spoken,  you  will  find  ample  proof  that 
Portland  gave  a  true  poet  to  the  world  in  Henry 
Wadsworth  Longfellow. 


IN  ME  MORI  AM.  169 

More  read  in  England  than  their  own  Laureate, 
in  this  country  he  is  facile  princeps.  Not  that  we 
would  disparage  Bryant,  whom  also  we  have  lost, 
or  Whittier,  who  still  lives  to  sing  the  ballads  of 
New  England  as  they  should  be  sung,  in  a  manner 
all  his  own,  and  with  a  tenderness  and  pathos 
which  find  a  response  in  every  New  England  heart. 
Whittier  is  racy  of  the  soil,  to  the  manor  born  ; 
no  "  travelled  man,"  not  "  having  seen  many  lands 
or  men  of  diverse  manners,"  but  a  poet  of  home 
like  aptitude,  tastes,  and  sympathies.  Longfellow 
loved  New  England  no  less,  but  his  culture  car 
ried  his  thought  into  all  lands  and  literatures, 
from  which  he  derived  treasures  to  adorn  his  own 
verse  and  enrich  and  ennoble  the  minds  of  his 
readers. 

The  influence  of  the  great  German  poets  in  par 
ticular  is  easily  discernible  in  his  youthful  rhymes, 
more  especially  that  of  Uhland,  whom  he  emulated 
and  finally  surpassed. 

But  he  lived  to  have  a  manner  all  his  own,  for 
which  he  was  indebted  to  no  one, — a  manner  and 
a  style  which,  in  inferior  hands,  quickly  degener 
ated  into  mannerism,  giving  us  "  the  contortions 
of  the  prophet  without  his  inspiration." 

His  genius,  like  that  of  his  friend  and  contempo 
rary,  Tennyson,  is  lyrical  rather  than  dramatic  or 
epic,  and  this  lyrical  genius  has  entered  into  the 


170        HENRY  WADSWOETH  LONGFELLOW. 

emotions,  the  aspirations,  the  thoughts,  the  life,  of 
English-speaking  people  all  over  the  world. 

If  we  compare  Longfellow  with  the  most  illus 
trious  of  his  contemporaries  and  personal  friends, 
he  will  lose  nothing  by  the  comparison.  It  was 
his  good  fortune  to  number  among  his  friends 
such  men  as  Everett,  Sumner,  Felton,  Walker, 
Holmes,  Bryant,  Whittier,  Emerson,  Lowell,  and 
Winthrop.  He  equalled  Everett  in  elegance,  and 
surpassed  him  in  geniality  of  manners  and  gen 
erosity  of  soul,  that  delicate  and  unfailing  sympa 
thy  which  greatly  endeared  him  to  "  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men."  His  tact  was  finer  than  Sum- 
ner's,  and  his  face,  the  index  of  his  heart,  as  ra 
diant  as  Felton's.  He  was  as  great  a  favorite  as 
Dr.  Walker  with  Harvard  students;  and  he  shared 
with  Bryant  and  Whittier  the  admiration  of  his 
countrymen,  while  the  number  of  his  English  and 
foreign  admirers  was  far  greater. 

If  asked  to  name  the  trait  at  once  the  most 
characteristic  of  the  poet  and  most  worthy  of  our 
commendation  and  emulation,  we  should  instance 
his  industry,  which  was  literally  untiring.  Only 
those  who  knew  him  best,  his  own  immediate 
family  and  family  connections,  can  fully  appreciate 
this  point.  But  I  doubt  not  that  they  will  con 
firm  the  statement  that  the  poet's  time  and 
strength  were  taxed  to  their  utmost  tension.  He 


IN  MEMOR1AM.  171 

never  knew  what  it  was  to  lose  a  day,  or  waste  an 
hour  in  idleness.  Even  "  the  children's  hour  "  was 
no  exception,  as  he  must  have  felt  while  living, 
and  his  children  more  amply  understand  now  that 
he  is  no  longer  with  them  as  of  old.  Add  to  this 
trait,  his  manly  presence,  fine  countenance,  speak 
ing  eye,  genial  smile,  friendly,  sympathetic  voice, 
and  courteous  address,  and  you  have  the  outward 
semblance  of  "  the  perfect  man,"  whose  mind  was 
a  kingdom. 

And  if,  as  Pericles  says,  that  "  of  good  and  great 
men  the  wrhole  earth  is  the  sepulchre,"  because 
their  memory  is  a  precious  inheritance,  which 
should  be  guarded  and  preserved  by  all  men,  and 
also  because  their  thoughts  and  lives  become  at 
death  the  common  property  of  the  world,  then  of 
Longfellow,  whose  happiness  it  was  in  life  to  be 
personally  loved,  and  in  death  universally  la 
mented,  we  may  truly  say,  — 

"  He  in  our  wonder  and  astonishment, 
Has  built  himself  a  lifelong  monument, 
And  there  sepulchred  in  such  pomp  doth  lie 
That  kings  for  such  a  tomb  might  wish  to  die.'* 


LOAN  DEPT. 


irec'd  circ.  MAR  1 1  1983 


-50m-3 '62 


